By Tom Carter
Former Nottingham Forest defender, Larry Lloyd, was spotted supporting Eastwood Community at the Mortgages For You Stadium on Saturday afternoon where Martyn Bunce’s Poachers secured their first win of 2023.
Lloyd was part of Brian Clough’s double European Cup-winning sides in 1979 against Swedish champions Malmo and then again in 1980, this time beating Hamburg from Germany. He also played for Liverpool under one of their great managers in Bill Shankly and won the 1973 UEFA Cup final against Borussia Moenchengladbach as well as making 4 caps for England.
However, the team he was supporting didn’t quite find success against Boston Town as they continued to look for their first away win of the season.
After losing 5-1 away to Quorn last weekend, the Poachers started brightly as good link-up play from Fraser Bayliss and Marshall Young resulted in Liam Adams having a go, but he skied his ball straight over the bar. In the 25th minute, Bayliss skipped through the Eastwood defence to eventually fire his shot past the keeper and put the hosts in front.
Shortly after getting his 13th goal of the campaign, Bayliss was involved in a nasty challenge which could have ended a lot worse for the forward. Eastwood’s number ten, Terry Atem, only received a yellow card for what looked like quite a dangerous tackle. At half time, Boston led 1-0.
It was a game of few chances and throughout the second half, there was little going on. The Poachers certainly dominated possession throughout but couldn’t seem to put the game to bed. A Boston player ended up one on one with the Eastwood keeper but was wrongly flagged offside which could’ve led to a Boston second. The Poachers did do enough though and secured all three points, a well earned win after the heavy loss at Quorn.
Martyn Bunce said: “It was a great response to last week’s defeat to Quorn but despite Eastwood looking tidy at times, we seemed to control the game”. When asked about if the Poachers could have put the game to bed, Bunce responded with: “Maybe we could’ve but when you come off the back of a heavy 5-1 defeat, the boys just wanted to get over the line but sometimes those 1-0s are great results.”
This Saturday, the Poachers host Kimberley Miners Welfare as they look to add another win against them after beating them in the league cup in October, 2-1.
Boston Town FC 