Lee Thompson is fondly remembered by Boston United fans for his numerous important contributions during their Football League days.
The now Stocksbridge Park Steels assistant manager was the first player to score a hat-trick in the Football League for Boston (against Darlington in 2002). But it is his double in the shock 4-3 League Cup first round victory over eventual League One champions Luton Town in September 2004 which is the subject of the latest ‘My Greatest Game’.
Thompson stepped off the bench with a minute to go with the scores tied at 2-2 and proceeded to seemingly win it for Boston 60 seconds later. The pandemonium soon subsided as future Leeds United striker Enoch Showunmi equalised for Luton to force extra-time.
He was still the hero as he netted the winner in the fourth minute of extra-time to book Steve Evans’ men a home clash with Premier League Fulham.
Thompson reminisces about playing with Paul Gascoigne who signed for Boston in 2004, as well as his relationships with Evans and Neil Warnock, two of the game’s most colourful managers. He also speaks of his admiration for Neil Thompson and Neil Redfearn who were manager and player/coach when Thompson made the move to York Street from Sheffield United in 2002.
Boston United (Courtney Pitt 23, Jason Lee 57, Thompson 90, 94) 4-3 (AET) Luton Town (Jason Lee 52OG, Kevin Nicholls pen 77, Enoch Showunmi 90) – Tuesday 7th September 2004
The Teams
Boston United: Nathan Abbey, Beevers, Greaves, Ellender, McCann, Rusk (Carruthers 108), Bennett, Holland, Pitt (Thomas 94), McManus (Thompson 89), Lee. Subs Not Used: Strong, Bastock.
Luton Town: Beresford, Brkovic, Coyne, Davies, Davis (Blinkhorn 90), Mansell (Showunmi 90), Nicholls, Robinson, Underwood, Vine, Howard. Subs: Leary, O’Leary, Seremet.
Referee: I Williamson (Berkshire)
Attendance: 2,631
“The Luton game actually got called off the week before as York Street was waterlogged and Gazza turned round and asked me if I wanted to go out with him that night? I was staying in Skegness and he said he was off to Butlins. But I said I was with the family so I went to them and said that Gazza wanted me to go with him. But my mum was there and she shouted ‘you’re not going out with him, no chance. You won’t come back home, you’ll be absolutely bladdered, blah, blah, blah’. Lo and behold, I missed a night out with Chris Evans, Danny Baker and Johnny Vegas. Johnny Vegas was performing at Butlins.
“The build-up was strange (to the Luton game) as the night before we played them, the draw was made so we knew that whoever won got Fulham who were in the Premier League at the time at home. They had (Edwin) Van der Sar, Andy Cole, world class players. We knew that would entail a full house at York Street.
“I knew I was going to be on the bench. We had done the set-up play during the week and I had become known as an impact sub as I got a few late goals. The players we had upfront at the time, they had Premier League experience. Even then looking at the bench we had which was very strong, I didn’t know if I would be coming on.
“We were very direct up to Jason Lee. We played to our strengths and Jay Lee was unbelievable. We always had a big striker at Boston. We had Graeme Jones before him. They were big, strong, could finish and dominate games. You had people like me running off the big target men and breaking the offside traps. Tam McManus came from Scotland where had had a good career and on the bench you had Martin Carruthers who had scored something like 30 goals for Scunthorpe the season before so we had a strong side.
“It was an end-to-end game with two very attacking sides and it was tit-for-tit. Watching the game and warming up at half-time, you didn’t know it was going to go. Luton had just drawn 0-0 at Sheffield Wednesday on the Saturday so you knew they were a good side. They were also top of League One and were flying. They had won all six games before the Wednesday match so we weren’t expected to win, definitely not. It was one of the toughest draws we could have got. People like Rowan Vine and Steve Howard who scored a lot of Football League goals were playing for them.
“It was about the 85th minute when he (Steve Evans) said ‘get stripped, you’re going on’. It was quite some entrance too. I scored with my first touch literally. The ball came into the six-yard, it took a touch off someone and I smashed it straight in. It was a wet night and I went sliding off into the turf. Then within a minute or so they had equalised. I thought I had done it, but we went into extra-time.
“We had been playing four minutes and I literally broke the offside trap and took the shot. The goalkeeper saved it and I put the rebound in. I celebrated by going absolutely ballistic. The crowd went ballistic. It was something dreams are made of, especially with the calibre of players coming to us for the next game.
“It was mental at the end of the game, everyone went mad. Steve Evans came running over and gave me a big sloppy kiss and cuddled me. Jason Lee near enough strangled me. Sky Sports were there as well and they came and interviewed people. BBC Radio Lincolnshire interviewed me live and I swore which I had to apologise for. Steve Evans did a live interview on Sky which I didn’t see until I got home. Because I lived in Sheffield, I didn’t get home until midnight. You can’t settle and I watched Steve’s interview on Sky Sports News and it was unbelievable. He was really complimentary and he said something like ‘Lee is always very capable of that, I use him as a sub because he comes on and causes mayhem. He’s made an impact, but like I’ve just said to him in the changing room, he is playing 90 minutes for the reserves tomorrow’. I did as well and it was against Lincoln in the local derby and they booted me all the place which brought me back down to earth.
“I didn’t get to play against Van der Sar and Andy Cole as Fulham made a few changes. Andy Cole was suspended. They rested Van der Sar and Mark Crossley played instead. They still had a very good side out. Steed Malbranque was unbelievable. He didn’t give the ball away. They had Collins John, Luis Boa Morte as well.
“I’ve had a lot of great moments like playing for England under 18s against Hungary at the old Wembley. On Twitter there’s been a lot of football nominations recently and memories have been brought up.
“The Darlington game sticks in the mind, but I got loads of late goals too. People remember them. That’s why he used me as a sub rather than a starter. There must have been seven or eight goals where they were 85 minutes plus. There was one against Oxford on the first game of the season when Paul Gascoigne first signed. I scored in the 92nd minute and they were the title favourites and it was all about me and Paul Gascoigne in the News of the World on the Sunday. I was like ‘oh my god, I’ve made team of the week’.
“It was amazing when Gazza signed and it was unbelievable to play alongside him. You have car schools at any club travelling from all over and we used to get to training half-an-hour early to listen to his stories. It was surreal that you were sat in a changing room with someone you looked up to and watched on TV and in World Cups. Now you’re playing in the same team as him and listening to his stories. I was one of the younger lads and he came and put his arm round me and he told me what he wanted from me on the pitch. He was brilliant.
“He didn’t play as much as he probably should have done. I felt he got targeted. We played Lincoln in the Lincolnshire Cup and we had to fetch him off because one of the Lincoln players just abused him and it was a horrible to see that happening to someone of that calibre.
“Gazza was funny and some of the things he told he had done, you’d look at him and think ‘no you haven’t’. He used to eat raw coffee on the way to away games. He’d open the Nescafe sachet and pour the coffee into the mouth and then smile. He was an absolute comic. He was great for team spirit and he was the centre of attention in a good way. He kept everyone upbeat. Some of the things he did in training with the ball were unbelievable.
“Steve Evans signed Gazza and Steve Evans is probably up there as the best manager I played for. Me and Steve still speak all the time even now. He offered me the chance to go to Crawley, bearing in mind I left Boston to go to Kidderminster. Unfortunately while I was down there I fractured my ankle and I ended up re-signing for Boston in the Conference North. Later on I was about 27 or 28 and I did a work experience visit for a school and I ended up going into Rotherham’s training ground and we got talking and he was asking how I was doing? When I explained all, he went ‘you could still do it in League One, definitely. How’s about a year’s deal, you come back and I get you fit’. I couldn’t pack in teaching. but it was brilliant for him to offer that.
“He was mental in the changing rooms. At times, I thought his head was going to explode. When he kicks off, he kicks off, no matter how big you are. He wears his heart on his sleeve. It is his way or no way and that’s why he’s had success. He’s ruthless, but you have to be ruthless to be a successful manager.
“He’s always had the style of management where some people will like it and others won’t. Steve Evans and Neil Warnock, who I had at Sheffield United are a dying breed. They are managers who wear their heart on the sleeve and tell it how it is and they’re not bothered who they upset.
“I saw a lot of Neil Warnock and he was another character. I haven’t got too many stories, but we as the reserves were playing a friendly against the first team. We were either winning or playing really well and he was going mental. Michael Brown lost his head and he went to go through me and he ended up hurting himself. Warnock came running onto the pitch screaming and shouting at me ‘saying I told you not to tackle, not to do this’. I pleaded my innocence, but he blamed me for Michael Brown getting injured. We didn’t fall out, but it wasn’t the same with him after that because Michael Brown was a top player at that time.
“Warnock is an acquired taste. I do remember when I was struggling really badly with my toe. I had an ingrowing toenail and it properly killing me and all the physios were talking about it and the gaffer walked in and went ‘what’s up with you now’? I told him and he went ‘let me have a look’? He grabbed hold of my foot and went ‘give me this, give me that’. Obviously he was a chiropodist and he sorted it. I was like ‘I can’t believe Neil Warnock is actually sorting my foot out, what’s going on’. It was mad.
“While I was with Sheffield United, I remember mixing with the French lads. Georges Santos was one of the nicest men ever. I had a bit of a rapport with the French lads at Sheffield United like Patrick Suffo, Georges and Laurent D’Jaffo. I spent a lot of time with them. They were so tight-knit, but they would back you to the hilt. They all looked out for everyone, but that could be said for the whole Sheffield United squad at the time.
“When Patrick came over, he struggled with his English, but we clicked. He got a delivery from Nike after he’d won the Olympics with Cameroon and he got two big crates of Nike stuff and he went ‘help yourself’ in French. I was working round with these brand new Nike trainers and people were asking where I had got them? I was like ‘oh from Patrick’.
“I moved on in 2002. Neil Thompson took me on loan to Boston from Sheffield United and then after that first month I signed a permanent deal. Neil was totally different to Steve Evans and Neil Warnock, personality-wise.
“Before I signed on loan, he didn’t take to me straightaway because he asked Neil Warnock if I could go for a trial game which I did against Mansfield. I played well in centre-midfield, but didn’t hear a thing afterwards which I taken aback by. It got to the Friday afternoon and I got a phone call from Neil Warnock asking me where I was? I ummed and ared and he went ‘where you are now, you better not be in a pub’? So I went ‘no, I’m just leaving McDonalds with my mum’. He told me to get to the ground before 2pm because Boston had put an offer in to go on loan and I needed to sign the paperwork. I literally had to leave my mum in McDonalds, run to Bramall Lane from Sheffield City Centre to sign the paperwork so I could play at Macclesfield the following day.
“Neil Thompson was a big believer in giving youth players a chance. I can say that on a personal level because my son Declan is at Sheffield Wednesday and Neil Thompson is the under 23s gaffer and he has given him a chance at 17. He’s pushing him on. Neil Thompson was brilliant for me. I trust him a lot. I don’t think I would have lasted or had the impact I had at Boston without him. He put his faith in me. That first game at Macclesfield, I was nervous and they had some massive characters in that changing room. I didn’t pull any trees up. I started the second game and scored the winner against Torquay and that just set me off. All I wanted to do as a kid was play a league game and score a league goal and by my second game I had done it.
“Neil Redfearn was fantastic for me too. I’ve always been classed as a utility player. I can play anyway. I’ve played in god knows how many positions. I’ve always scored goals, but I was more of a smasher and Neil Redfearn taught me how to finish properly. He took time out and showed me what to do. He said things like ‘be calm, slide balls in’. He taught me how to finish with the outside of my foot. How to caress a ball in. How to spin a ball into the net. He helped me out massively and influenced my game because he took the time out to help and it paid off. His coaching ability is extremely high and you can see why he is highly regarded. Finishing-wise, I don’t think I’ve played with anyone that can score like him. The man was frightening. He’s such a nice bloke too. He had time for everyone.
“I’m now coaching myself as the assistant manager of Stocksbridge. I still play from time to time. I also look for Boston’s results and Craig Elliott has done a fantastic job, he really has.
“He’s doing things the right way. He’s not throwing loads and loads of money at it. He is getting a good side together. As everyone knows I love Boston to bits. It is known that I went for the job when Craig got it and I was gutted not to get the job, but it is great to see the great job Craig is doing.
“I want to break into number one management at some point, that’s the next step. I’m still playing at 38 and I’m still learning on the coaching/managing side. That was the downside when I went for the Boston job. Looking back, it may have been too early for me anyway.
“I enjoy working with Chris Hilton at Stocksbridge. Myself and Hilts work well together and we bounce ideas off each other and it is proof that we do work well together when you look how well we are doing.”
Lee Thompson was interviewed by James Grayson