by Tom Carter
Martyn Bunce’s Poachers suffered a heavy 4-1 defeat at home to rivals Skegness Town in a Boxing Day derby to forget for Boston Town.
Both sides were in fairly good form going into the game but with the hosts not playing since the first Saturday in December and the pitch being heavy after a few frosty weeks, a lot of reasons made this game even tougher for Boston. Early on in the game, Marshall Young forced a save from the young Skegness goalkeeper Jake Lovelace. In the first half, both sides tried to create chances but the backline for both teams defended well. Richard Ford performed a heroic tackle to deny Jonnie Lockie from being one on one to keep the score at 0-0.
26 minutes in, Jamie Potts swung in a free kick for Skegness and found the head of Ben Davison who put visitors in front against his former side. At Half Time, Boston Town were behind 1-0.
The visitors continued to play well in the second half with Davison shooting over just two minutes in as he was looking for another goal. A controversial decision from the referee caused questions from the Boston Town eleven when Richard Ford was taken down in the box but no penalty was the outcome. With 30 minutes left to play, a mistake from Luke Wilson at the back for Boston saw Declan Johnson run freely down the right, his initial shot found the feet of Lockie who tapped home to make it 2-0.
Boston’s best spell came after the second goal as the hosts looked to get one back. In the 78th minute, a scrappy move resulted in Fraser Bayliss managing to strike the net to get a goal back. Could the Poachers find an equaliser? Skegness held on well to their lead and added two more in injury time. Some good skill from Connor Marshall saw him add a third for the Lillywhites and Gary King found some luck as his shot came off both posts before adding a fourth goal to the tally.
After the 4-1 defeat, Poachers manager Martyn Bunce said that his team “were nowhere near it” compared to his former team in Skegness. He explained “The team who wanted it more won”.
It wasn’t the best way to see off 2022 for Boston Town but they return to action on the 7th January when they face a trip to Quorn.
Town: Portas, Wilson, Field (Waddington), Maddison, Ford, Beeson, Bayliss, Hobbins, J Nuttell (Limb), Young, J Tate; unused sub: L Tate
Boston Town FC 