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Justice..................5 Years On |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 08 May 2007 |
With Wrexham beating Boston United on Saturday, to push the Lincolnshire side into the Conference, many people will feel that natural justice has prevailed after 5 years. None of the FA, the Football League, the Football Conference or even our country's wonderful judicial system could provide any justice in the last 5 years, so it is somewhat refreshing and pleasing that in the end, justice was provided on the football pitch.
Many people associated with other clubs may wonder exactly why D and R fans are so bitter towards Boston United, and particularly some of the people running the Club. But to see exactly why this is we need to look at what went on 5 years ago, or even slightly further back than that.
The 1999/2000 season saw both Dagenham and Redbridge and Boston United promoted to the Conference from their respective feeder leagues. Dagenham were managed by Garry Hill while Boston were managed by Steve Evans. In their first season back in the Conference the clubs experienced contrasting fortunes. Hill led the Essex club to an unexpected 3rd place finish, will Evans guided Boston into mid-table. However, by the start of the 2001/2002 season both clubs were among the favourites to win a place in the Football League. While Garry Hill had bought together a team mainly made up of non league players and youngsters (plus Mark Stein!!!!), Evans had been give then financial backing which enabled him to assemble a glamorous looking squad of players.
The 2001/2002 season started well for both sides and by September the two teams were already leading the race for the title. Dagenham visited York Street in late September and came away with a 2-1 win. Evans had said in his programme notes what a good side Dagenham were and how he respected their manager Gary Hill etc etc, but this was not how things would soon turnout! As the season went on the two sides pulled well clear of the pack and by February the Conference race was a two horse race. By now, the media were showing an interest in the Conference and both managers seemed happy to give an interview to the TV or written media. Things started to really spice up in late February when Boston's game against Hereford was screened live on SKY TV. In the studio that night was Garry Hill! After Boston had lost 4-3 Evans seemed to get a little agitated in his interview and made several sharp comments towards Hill. Hill laughed it off but things had now heated up. Come March and Boston visited Victoria Road in a top of the table clash, again live on SKY. The Daggers won 1-0 thanks to an Ashley Vickers goal and after the game did their normal post match routine of walking/running round the whole ground to thank the fans for their support. However, Evans did not see it like this and went to the press to say Dagenham should not have done a "lap of honour" as the title was not over yet!!! He also made claims about incidents in the dressing room area which nobody else was able to back up!!!! Evans was right though, the season was not over, and over the following six weeks there were plenty of twists and turns. In the end Dagenham faced Chester City on the last day of the season knowing that even a win would only see them claim the title if Boston did not beat relegated Hayes. In the end both sides won and Boston took the title. Looking to make a point to the end, Evans announced to the SKY cameras that Boston were going on a lap of honour, as laps of honour were for champions. They were words which would come back to haunt many people involved with Boston United.
During all this, Boston as a club, and especially manager Evans, had become very unpopular with other clubs and other clubs fans, especially Conference clubs. Their supporters though had lauded Evans as the messiah, despite his comments and unpopularity with other clubs. However, a few weeks after the end of the season the FA announced that following investigations at Boston United it had found that the club had been falsifying contracts lodged with the FA, and charged Boston with the offence. However, the punishments which were handed out by the FA were somewhat lenient. Boston were docked 4 points, but the points were docked from the following season! This was totally inconsistent with previous punishments for similar offences which were given to Swindon and Chesterfield in the past where the clubs were docked more points, and also docked the points from the season where the offence had taken place. Boston were also handed a £100,000.00 fine (promotion was reckoned to be worth more than double this). Evans was then given a 20 month suspension from the game by the FA for his part in the whole affair.
Dagenham were rightly furious with the decision and appealed to the FA to change the punishment. However, the cowards and crooks at the FA were not interested, probably knowing that a club like Dagenham could not afford to take expensive legal action to fight their case. Boston fans seemed to find the whole scenario quite amusing and showed no remorse for what had gone on, claiming that any club would have done the same thing in their situation.
As was to later come out in the law courts, the issue centred around the details of payments to players in their contracts. We will cover this in more details later, but basically they were lying to certain parties as to what they were paying players, and how this money was paid.
During the 2002/2003 season Des Wood, whose company now had some control of the club, announced that the club had serious debts to certain people/companies, and also admitted that the club owed a substantial amount of money to the Inland Revenue, and HM Customs and Excises. This led to various investigations by both these bodies which was eventually to bring charges against certain employees of the club. At the end of 2003 Wood could not gain full control of the club and so control returned to the Malkinson family (hardly a trust worthy bunch) and they sold control of the club to a man named John Sotnick and his Lavaflow Company. Sotnick seemed to be about as reliable as a Skoda but he returned Evans to the club as boss which pleased many of Boston's deluded fans. It was becoming clear now that Sotnick, the Malkinsons and Evans were essentially a bunch of wrong uns who had no real interest in doing anything for the good of a football club or the game in general. During all this the FA never came out and commented or did anything despite everyone else in football being able to work out that things were not being done, shall we say, in the right way. In the meantime Dagenham had missed out on promotion in the play offs of the 2002/2003 season and in the 2003/2004 season they struggled to re-build and had a poor season. Towards the end of that season Garry Hill resigned as manager of the club, and by this stage the majority of the team who were cheated by Boston had left the club. Many were never to play in the Football League and Hill himself has not yet managed to take a team into the Football League despite doing a good job at Hornchurch and Weymouth. Most of the players from the 2001/2002 season went on to play for other non league clubs, and many are still playing now in the area.
Things took a more serious turn for the worse for Boston a few months later when it was announced that Evans and Malkinson, and three other members of the club's staff were to face charges for defrauding the Inland Revenue between April 1997 and July 2001. At this point many Boston fans finally seemed to admit that their club was essentially being run by a bunch of crooks and they finally appealed for the truth to come out and for Evans to be sacked as manager. But nothing was done. Amazingly at this time the FA still did and said nothing, backing up what many football supporters already knew..........that they were the most spineless and useless organisation in this country! The 5 men were due to appear at Southward Crown Court in January 2006, but the trial eventually took place in September of that year. Through all this Evans still remained manager of the club!! Also through all this, officials at Dagenham and Redbridge handled themselves impeccably. Never once lowering themselves to trade insults with the FA or the cheats from Lincolnshire, they just carried on going about their business of running a lower league/non league football club in the right way.
And so to the trial. We are not in a position to go into the ins and outs of this (for obvious reasons). However, the basics were that 3 of the men were found not guilty of any of the offences, but Evans and Malkinson were. www.upminsterdaggers.co.uk attended one day of the trial and were amazed with what they heard. Various ex players, including ex Dagger Micky Nuttle gave evidence. Again, without going into the details it was clear that what had gone on was frankly a disgrace. I wonder if the FA bothered to attend any of the trial to hear all this, but I doubt it. If they had, they may have actually realised that the punishment they dished out 4 and half years ago was nothing short of ridiculous. Evans and Malkinson though escaped any real punishment. Despite short-changing the revenue of around £340,000 both men were given suspended sentences, which basically means they had got off. Amazing, that at a time when Government campaigns and adverts urge people to grass on others for things like benefit fraud, two men found guilty of offences like this get off with no real punishment!! We were left wondering then whether the judicial system or the FA was more useless? Answers on a postcard!!
So Evans carried on with his job at Boston, which was now a club in real crisis. Many fans had finally woken up and realised their club was immoral, corrupt and a disgrace and started to boycott games. Evans criticised them!!! Then the club started playing children's games and doing things like getting fans forums shut down on the internet. We at Dagenham sat here and laughed, especially as our season was going so well!! But although we laughed, it also angered many of us, who felt that this just went to show how inept the FA had been when not doing their job 4 and half years ago! As the season went into 2007 Boston were now in deep relegation trouble, and their financial situation was now well publicised. Amazingly Evans, and new Chairman Jim Rodwell (he off Intelligent Footballer fame!?!) expected people to be sympathetic towards them!! They would appear on SKY and in the media and say how they had not been paid, and they needed help etc etc!! Still we carried on laughing, although again we were angered to an extent, this time by their cheek. Boston averted several issues which looked like meaning the club may not even finish the season, and so with Dagenham already champions and promoted to the Football League, Boston went into a last game encounter with Wrexham to basically see who would be relegated. Boston needed to win at Wrexham (or at least draw and hope other results went their way) to survive. They led at half time but in front of a packed crowd (including several Daggers) they fell apart in the second half, lost 3-1 and were relegated!! Once again, most Daggers fans thought this was a good thing, and most decent football fans also thought this was a good thing, but there was still to be a final twist. With Boston in a precarious financial situation, at some time in the last FEW MINUTES OF THE GAME, Boston went into administration!!! Going into administration carries a 10 point deduction penalty in both the Football League and the Conference, and so Boston waited until they could be sure they were going down before going into administration, thus meaning that they have the 10 point deduction from this season, rather than next!!!! Right until the end those running Boston United showed they have absolutely no morals and principles. However, this week the Football League and the Conference have expressed concerns over how this was done, and Boston's very future is currently hanging in the balance.
And so 5 years after one of football's biggest injustices, some sort of justice has been done. Dagenham and Redbridge take their place in the Football League, and Boston United are relegated from that same league. However, despite this, the wrongs of 5 years ago will never genuinely be righted. While we all feel that justice has been done to some degree, it hasn't in reality. Apart from Lee Goodwin, Tony Roberts and Tim Cole (2 of whom have hardly played this season) none of the squad of 2001/2002 is at the club to enjoy this moment. Apart from Terry Harris, Bill Edmunds and Mick Payne, none of the backroom staff who were at the club in 2001/2002 are at the club to enjoy this moment. But I suppose it is justice to the fans of the club. They were also robbed in 2002 and this is some kind of justice to them. It is also some sort of justice to people like Dave Andrews and Steve Thompson who have carried things out in such a professional manner through the last 5 years.
In many ways Dagenham and Redbridge fans should not let themselves think about Boston United at a time of great success for themselves, but it is only natural. Also, the fact that our season has been winding down in some ways since April 7th has meant the Boston affair has given us something to follow in the last few weeks! I must also say that I am sure most football fans and most Dagenham fans would not want to see a club go under or be in trouble, but circumstances here are slightly different. If, when it had become clear what had happened at Boston, Steve Evans and his crooked cronies had of been forced out of their club, and their club had cleaned themselves up, then while some people may not have not have forgotten, they may have slightly forgiven. But 5 years on Evans is still at Boston, and he and his cronies continue to be a smear on the game. While they remain there, and while people involved at Boston cannot hold their hands up to what has gone on, then I for one hope they continue to struggle on and off the pitch.
So while everyone at Dagenham rejoices in what they have achieved, and rightly so, some of us will also be having a think back to those who played, managed and watched 5 years ago. I am sure they, even if they may not say so, are pleased with how things have turned out for both clubs this season, and they may well see it as some sort of justice, 5 years on. |
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