2003 Divison 3 Play-off Final

Bournemouth 5 - 2 Lincoln

"What a day, What a day"

What a day indeed. This was the Highest scoring Play-off final in History and well worth the ticket price. A cocktail of emotion mixed in my stomach as we crossed the Severn bridge on the way to Cardiff. When we arrived the atmosphere was a party one. A sea of red and black drowned the streets of cardiff.

After a while enjoying the sights and sounds of the welsh capital the lads entered the stadium in ore. Why cant the new Wembly be like this we were asking ourselves. Then after it felt like hours waving the red and black flag the game kicked off.

Lincoln started with the upper hand playing typical hoofing the ball up (Eynsham) tactics. It was only a matter of time before our boys would show them how to play real football and so they did. Steve Fletcher with a "stunning goal" mid way into the first half. Immediatly Lincoln broke back but this ended in first half stopage time with a header from our captain Carl Fletcher.

The first half started 50:50 but we seemed in control. Then came the best team goal I had ever seen from Bournemouth. Moss Punched it out and a pass was played out to James Hayter who ran it out to the right wing, he played it down the line to Wade Elliot. The boy wonder ran with it to the byline before crossing it to an on running Stevie Purches. He made contact and its 3-1 Bournemouth. Shortly after, Gareth O'Conner finished superbly to give us a 4-1 lead, I was in Heaven. They got one back (nuff said). At this point I just wanted us to get the last goal to top it off and Carl Fletcher delivered again with another sublime header.

Party Time, we had a couple of drinks (or ten), finished with a KFC then off home to watch the whole thing on video.

Home