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Season Reviews

2003/04

Life as a Ducks fan is rarely dull and certainly never uneventful, but last season turned out to be the most chaotic in living memory, with as many managers as league wins. Believe it or not though there were some good moments on the pitch, and here we will try and highlight the highlights, so to speak. The summer of 2003 had seen manager Steve Cordery leave the club to take charge at Staines, his hometown side. The surprise choice as his replacement was former player Chris Boothe, with Steve Gallen as his assistant.

The Boothe Era

The new season began with Billericay at home, and saw Chris Bangura and two of Boothe's more high profile signings, Karl Ready and Danny Grieves, score in an astonishing 3-2 win as United overcame a two-goal deficit with all their goals coming inside the last 20 minutes.

Only a late equaliser from a battling Northwood side denied Aylesbury a second win three days later in the first midweek game, with another Boothe signing, Dean Canoville, having given the Ducks a lead early in the second half.

Unfortunately this heartening start proved to be very much a false dawn. The Ducks were never seen in the top half of the table again from this point on. The collapse began with a thrashing at the hands of Kevin Wilson's Bedford at the New Eyrie, future Ducks striker (in more ways than one) Mark Reed coming off the bench to score in a 4-1 defeat.

The next three results saw the fact that it would be a long, hard season begin to dawn - Aylesbury defeated 2-0 at home by Hornchurch, 2-0 away by struggling Braintree and 3-0 in a dreadful home performance against Basingstoke.

The under-performing Grieves and Ready had moved onto pastures new before Boothe had begun his best run as Ducks boss - going four games unbeaten. This run began with a 2-2 draw at Top Field against Hitchin, in a game that saw both sides end up with ten men. A seemingly rejuvenated Aylesbury team pulled off one of the most impressive results of the season the following Tuesday night, with a 1-0 victory over high-flying Bognor Regis, thanks to a tremendous 90th-minute solo winner from Alvin Bubb.

Carshalton like Bognor had started well following promotion to the Premier Division and they were the visitors to Buckingham Road four days later. The visitors again left disappointed as, having led 1-0 for over 75 minutes, they were denied by another late Ducks goal, this time from emerging young star Danny Mead with a brilliant free kick.

The unbeaten run ended with a goalless draw at Kingsmeadow with Kingstonian, but this game was also the beginning of another poor run without a Ducks goal as an increasingly young and inexperienced line-up fell to 3-0 defeats at home to Grays and away at Hayes.

Arguably, both the best and worst moments of the season on the pitch came in the FA Cup Second Qualifying Round game away to Braintree. Having fallen into an early lead, United equalised on the half-hour mark with a penalty from Adam Campion. Danny Gordon was then sent off early in the second half for a second bookable offence and it became real backs-to-the-walls stuff - even more so as Greg Williams scored a sensational long-range half-volley to give the ten men the lead five minutes later! Unfortunately, the game was eventually to end in heartbreak as Braintree finally made their advantage pay in the last five minutes with two goals, the second a debatable penalty. Unlucky as this may have been in retrospect, it proved to be the final straw for the Ducks careers of Messrs. Boothe and Gallen, as Aylesbury moved on to supposedly better things.

The Wilson Era

Dismissed manager Chris Boothe was replaced almost immediately and his high-profile successor brought with him a great deal of excitement to the club. Former Northampton boss Kevin Wilson and assistant Lee Howey had chosen to make the switch from Bedford to the Ducks and it was a popular decision with most fans, with hopes of the club gaining a prized Conference 2 place at their highest since the opening week of the season.

Wilson wasted no time in adding to a depleted squad, with the inspirational Paul Covington making his debut just a couple of days into Wilson's reign in an expected 4-0 defeat at champions elect Canvey Island. Chris Jackson, another ex-Bedford man appeared three days later, as United managed to hold Hendon to a 1-1 draw at home with a goal from Bangura.

Bangura was on the scoresheet again eleven days later, adding to Greg Williams' strike in a 2-0 win at Harrow Borough, Aylesbury's first away win of the season. A week later the Ducks began their FA Trophy campaign with a tie at home to Banstead Athletic, which saw a talented youngster who had long been waiting in the wings finally make his mark. With United having fallen behind in the second half, off the bench came Danny Gray to score an 89th minute equaliser and keep his team in the competition. In the replay three days later, it was none other than Gray again who scored the winner in a 1-0 victory.

The following weekend a third consecutive away win came in remarkable fashion at Heybridge, despite the early sending off of Adam Campion. The game saw the Ducks debuts of two talented attackers in Matt Glynn and Darren Lynch, but it was substitute Alvin Bubb who could claim to be the match winner for the second time of the season with two goals, the second deep into injury time.

The Ducks' impressive away form continued at Sutton, as Aylesbury came from two goals down to earn a 2-2 draw in an entertaining game, with Bubb again and Matt Glynn on the scoresheet. United had achieved their best sequence of results of the season at this point, having gone six games without defeat and climbing briefly out of the relegation zone. Unfortunately, this was as good as things would get.

While Wilson's team were without doubt consistently impressive on the road, they underachieved just as regularly at Buckingham Road. On two Saturdays running the now expectant home faithful were to be disappointed as Aylesbury were beaten by Thurrock 4-2 and Maidenhead 3-1. This run did look likely to be halted in the Second Round of the Trophy against Grays, as first Ducks goals for Lynch and Jackson saw United race into a shock 2-0 lead. When the visitors managed to salvage a draw however there was a feeling that Aylesbury had thrown away an unexpected chance to progress. The few fans that did make the journey to Essex the following Tuesday night were rewarded handsomely, as Darren Lynch header inside the last five minutes proved to be the winner. A fantastic result against a Grays side who were to go the entire league season unbeaten at home.

Another highlight away from home came four days later as Wilson took a point from his future employers Kettering in a thrilling 2-2 draw, with Aylesbury goals from Covington and the free-scoring Lynch. Incredibly they still could not replicate this form at home though and fell to a dreadful 1-0 Buckingham Road defeat against Bishop's Stortford, before an unusually disappointing away effort saw them held to another 2-2 draw by rock-bottom Billericay.

Wilson's only home win finally came in a Tuesday night game against Ford, with Darren Lynch's hat-trick securing the three points in a 3-2 victory, but even here United did it the hard way, twice allowing Ford to equalise. The euphoria and the feeling that the season was finally turning in the right direction wasn't to last however, as a desperately disappointing 2-1 defeat at home to Northwood followed. Then things were to go really pear-shaped.

The Lacey/Remnant Era

The resignation of Kevin Wilson following the Northwood game (to take over at Kettering it later transpired) was to have enormous repercussions. Over the Christmas period the bulk of the first team squad refused to play, amid claims that four released players had not been paid. The caretaker management team of long-serving fan Simon Lacey and ex-reserves boss Pete Remnant were therefore forced to field a team consisting mostly of reserve team players for the Boxing Day game at St. Albans.

But the day would prove to be one of great pride as the vociferous travelling support saw their new heroes take a shock lead with a sweet strike from Nadim Akhtar. This game was finally lost 3-1, however six days later a quite phenomenal effort saw United take a 3-1 lead against Bedford thanks to goals from Matt Hayward, Aaron Cavill and Lewis Pritchard, only for the visitors to come back and draw 3-3 with two goals in the final twenty minutes. Without question though, this was one of the best footballing displays of the season at Buckingham Road, with Aylesbury playing football the way it should be played and giving us a truly memorable day.

A battling performance in the FA Trophy Third Round at Hornchurch didn't prove enough to stop the well-financed home side running out 2-0 winners. Seven days later, new manager Paul Curtis' first experience of the Ducks was to see them hammered 4-1 in a poor showing at home to Hitchin.

The Curtis Era (So Far)

The new man inherited a team still severely depleted; of the striking players only two, Alvin Bubb and Greg Williams, were to return to play for the club again. His first official game in charge saw his young team lose 3-0 at Carshalton, before a 4-2 defeat to Windsor in the Berks & Bucks Cup three days later. Unfortunately this was the last time Aylesbury were to score at Buckingham Road in 2003/04.

In the next seven games United managed just one goal and two points (both from goalless draws), in a run which included four, five and six goal defeats to Bognor, Thurrock and Sutton respectively. The reality of the situation was now becoming very apparent - Aylesbury were seemingly doomed to finish bottom of the pile.

At the beginning of March however there were signs that Curtis was beginning to turn things around, starting with an incredible Tuesday night game at Bishop's Stortford in front of roughly ten very lucky Ducks fans. Two goals each from Ryan Wiffin and Rory Hunter saw Aylesbury come back from 3-1 and 4-3 deficits to claim a stunning 4-4 draw. It was commented at the time that you had to see it to believe it and indeed many of those who weren't there still refuse to believe it to this day!

This remarkable game seemed to inject some much-needed spirit into Curtis' team and for the rest of March they looked almost to be a different side to that of the previous month. The Ducks were now looking like they could compete at this level after all and were only narrowly defeated by high-flying Hayes (1-0), Grays (2-1) and Canvey Island (2-0), with Wiffin's headed goal even giving United a shock second half lead at Grays.

This improved form peaked at second-placed Hendon, when a goal on his debut from Donovan Reed gave Aylesbury an early lead. Although this was inevitably cancelled out, United continued to battle tremendously and came away from Claremont Road with a brilliant 1-1 draw.

Unfortunately this was as good as it would get and there were few high points from the end of March onwards. With expectations now a little higher, Aylesbury disappointingly failed to beat strugglers Braintree and St. Albans at home; indeed the Ducks couldn't even score during the whole month of April, before a 4-2 loss at Maidenhead mercifully brought the season to an end.

Leon O'Sullivan - July 2004