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Disaster strikes

Accrington Stanley 1-1 Pilgrims

Unibond League

In this match Boston continued their trend of dominating the play but failing to get maximum points. The Pilgrims started this match with the familiar line-up. The only change from last week's match at Altrincham was that Richard Mason replaced Joby Gowshall, who had not recovered from the calf injury sustained in that match. For the first twenty minutes it was all Boston. Paul Cavell had a couple of near misses, one with the boot the other with his head, and the Pilgrims won a succession of corners. Then disaster struck. In the twentieth minute Accrington sprang the offside trap to allow their No. 10 Steve HAW to run through and score. For the rest of the half it was more even, both sides made scoring chances. Boston's best chance came from a free kick on the edge of the area following a foul on Chris Cook, but Steve Charles' shot was well read by the goalkeeper. There was one moment of farce in the first half when Accrington's No. 7 Stuart Gelling went down after colliding with Richard Mason. Accrington brought on their substitute but Gelling then got up and refused to go off and the substitute had to be withdrawn.

Five minutes into the second half Boston equalised. A cross into the area was chested down by Chris Cook into the path of Steve CHARLES who hammered the ball into the net. From then on Boston looked like the side most likely to come away with three points but just failed to get the final touch required. Cook and Chambers both went close and a Cavell header was pushed onto the post by the goalkeeper. Paul Watts came on for Chris Cook for the last ten minutes but to no avail. Accrington's new manager; Leighton James, managed to get ticked off by the referee after continually shouting instructions to the team from the touchline. So this was a solid performance which resulted in yet another draw. Only one player could be said to have had a poor game and that was Steve Appleby whose passes often went astray. It should be interesting to see what changes are made to the line-up when Steve Chambers and Joby Gowshall are both fit again.

United team: 1. Paul Bastock, 2. Richard Mason, 3. Chris Withe, 4. Greg Fee, 5. Martin Hardy, 6. Steve Charles, 7. Andrew Stanhope, 8. Steve Appleby, 9. Paul Cavell, 10. Leroy Chambers, 11. Chris Cook, 12. Paul Watts, 14. Ross Nichols, 15. Danny Marshall.