Boro’ have taken on their fair share of opponents down the years and some of those teams have simply been no more than passing acquaintances, while there are others that have become – well – annoyingly familiar. For all the many times we’ve faced teams like Woking, there have been rare match-ups too. So, we’re asking, where do Basildon United stand in the grand scheme of things?
Basildon United: Us And Them
Basildon United Football Club spent just 10 seasons as a member of the Isthmian League. That’s not exactly the largest window of opportunity, but just about large enough for us to come up against ’em. The Bees had already taken the Division Two crown by the time Boro’ arrived on the scene in 1984, which meant it’d take their relegation or our promotion to set up a first ever meeting with the Essex club. It reflects well on us that it was the latter, in 1986, that proved the case.
We’d much rather forget that first ever meeting, however. On home turf, Martin Gittings (who else?) got a consolation goal as The Bees ran out 4-1 winners. It took four attempts for us to get the better of Basildon United in the end. And our 1-0 triumph at their gaff on 30 April 1988 proved a fat load of good anyway. Mainly ‘cos we’d already been consigned to relegation the week before. So, it was the end of the first chapter as far as our comrades from Essex are concerned.
The second chapter wasn’t long in the making. A season after we plunged out of Division One, Basildon United followed. And, like that first set of four encounters, it wasn’t until the fourth on 12 January 1991 that we’d take all three points – a 3-1 home win as we charted our course back to Division One. Mind you, we didn’t lose any of those other three. It’s why our overall record against The Bees is nice and even: two wins, two defeats and four draws. No arguments there…
OK, the goal count is a little uneven on account of that first tete-a-tete. But meh.
Of course, Boro’ went up at the end of the 1990-1 campaign. For Basildon United, it was a different story. The Bees made a return to the Essex Senior League and have stayed put ever since. A title win in 1994 is pretty much all there is to show for it. Oh, there’s a couple of second-placed finishes if you’re counting too – the latest being last season. Can Basildon United return to the Isthmian League one day? Do they even want to? Well, we can’t answer that for you sadly…
BoroGuide’s Basildon United club profile – for old time’s sake…
