Boston United preview

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The visit of Boston will bring back some nightmare memories for the County fans as they flashback to our first game in the Conference North. Before Tuesday's matches it seemed likely we would be playing host to the League leaders but Boston somehow managed to conceded 7 goals at home to a team that had leaked 8 goals themselves the previous Saturday.

Boston's last five games (positions in brackets)
  • H v North Ferriby United, lost 0-1 (3rd)
  • A v Tamworth, drew 1-1 (4th)
  • H v Stalybridge Celtic, drew 1-1 (3rd)
  • A v Bradford Park Aevnue, won 3-1 (2nd=)
  • H v Oxford City, lost 2-7 (5th)


The Oxford game saw the following player's turn out for Dennis Greene's side


The match report on Boston's own website said the Pilgrims created plenty of chances so it's perhaps likely that the midfield and forwards will be left unchanged on Saturday. The defence might well be a different matter. The goalkeeping duties have been shared between former League of Ireland player Gledhill, the unfortunate last line of defence on Tuesday, and home grown product Sam Vince.

 
Boston v County 2013/14

Former County man Carl Piergiani is one of only two players to start every game so far. The other ever-present is Tuesday two goal man Scott Garner, who started the scoring at EP last season. Scott is second in Boston's scoring charts, two goals behind 5 goals to scorer Dayle Southwell. Southwell's total has been boosted by three penalties perhaps indicating the need for extra caution inside their own box for the County defenders. Their other goals have been shared between 5 men.

The County Side
Alan Lord will be forced to make at least one change to last week's side as Jamie Milligan's suspension kicks in for this game. It leaves the manager having to decide whether to do a straight swap or move players around from other positions to fill the midfield slot with one of his defenders who have also performed further forward during pre-season.

The manager does have the chance on Thursday night to take one last look at his options as the Development Squad face the club's first Lancashire League Cup tie since January 1991 - a match at Marine Reserves for the then 'A' team for which the result has not yet been traced.


Past Visits by the Pilgrims
Although Boston are one of our more familiar opponents amongst the Conference North clubs it is just 10 seasons since we first hosted them at Edgeley Park. County were in a season long battle against dropping into the Conference when Julian Joachim didn't help matters in February 2006. Things were much better the following season with a good win. Then the teams were kept apart until last season's worrying opening day defeat in front of the biggest crowd for any Conference North game in 2013-14.

Saturday 25 February 2006 - Coca-Cola League Two

COUNTY 0 Boston 1 (Joachim) att. 5,133

County: James Spencer, Dave Beharall, Ashley Williams, Mark Hughes (Damien Allen), Mark Robinson, Matt Hamshaw, Michael Wolski (Daryl Smylie), Danny Boshell, Adam Griffin, Tes Bramble (Adam Le Fondre), Liam Dickinson
United: Michels Kuipers, Lee Canoville (Jermaine McSporran), Alan White, Asa Hall, Chris Holland, Simon Rusk, Mark Greaves, Stewart Talbot (Danny Thomas), Julian Joachim (Jamie Clarke), Lawrie Dudfield, Gary Silk.

Saturday 13 January 2007 - Coca-Cola League Two

COUNTY 2 (Proudlock, Bramble) Boston 0 att. 4,568

County: Wayne Hennessey, Rob Clare, Gareth Owen, Ashley Williams, Michael Rose, David Poole (Damien Allen), Jason Taylor, Stephen Gleeson, Anthony Pilkington (Adam Griffin), Adam Proudlock (Tes Bramble), Anthony Elding.
United: Andy Marriott, Lee Canoville, Ian Miller, Brad Thomas (Paul Ellender), David Galbraith, Francis Green (Dany N'Guessan), Mark Greaves, Jason Kennedy, Chris Holland (Dave Farrell), Drewe Broughton, John Richards

Saturday 17 August 2013 - Skrill Conference North

COUNTY 1 (Dennis p) Boston 4 (Garner, Newsham, Weir-Daley, Miller) att. 3,317

County: Ian Ormson, Kyle Jacobs, Stephen O'Halloran, Jordan Fagbola, James Tunnicliffe, Kieran Charnock (Rhys Turner), Jamie Hand, Ian Craney (Adriano Moké), Phil Jevons (Iain Howard), Kristian Dennis, Aman Verma
Boston: Ashley Timms, Peter Bore, Scott Garner, Carl Piergianni, Netan Sansara, Ian Ross (Stefan Galinski), Conor Marshall, Ben Milnes, Ricky Miller (Ben Fairclough), Marc Newsham, Spencer Weir-Daley (Charlie Sanders)

Prospects
The form tables show County are slightly ahead of Boston over the last 6 games but the visitors come to Edgeley with the best away record in the division this season. If County can perform as well as they have in the last two home games they should be able to climb back into the top half of the table with the chance of further progress when they play their game in hand on Tuesday night.



 Other Matches
Games in Vanarama Confernce North that could affect County's position by full-time.
Barrow v Leamington; Colwyn Bay v North Ferriby U; Gloucester C v AFC Fylde; Harrogate T v Solihull Moors; Hednesford T v Guiseley; Lowestoft T v Bradford PA; Oxford C v Gainsborough Tr; Stalybridge Cel v Tamworth; Worcester C v Chorley
 


Ian Watts




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