Bath City 2-0 Pilgrims

Dr Martens League

by Barbara Singleton

Away returns haven't been too free-flowing of late for Boston United, despite their top spot in the Dr Martens League. Defeat at Bath brought to end an unbeaten Pilgrims' Premier Division run spanning 14 matches and enabled the likes of Burton Albion, Margate and Saturday's conquerors to claw back some of the deficit in the championship chase. It was a further setback in a slightly faltering sequence of away results, with United now having collected just nine points out of the last 27 available on their travels, when draws have been all too frequent outcomes. One loss, of course, doesn't constitute a crisis. And manager Steve Evans is confident his squad can bounce back when home advantage comes around on December 27 in a derby clash against King's Lynn. Evans said: "We are now exactly at the halfway point of our season. We have had a succession of difficult away games. However, we remain at the top and other clubs have still got to pick up plenty of points from games in hand if they are to get close to us. Nothing is ever decided at this stage of the season, so what we now need to do is try and get into another unbeaten run and hopefully improve our position. We have got ourselves to the top and no-one wants to see all our good work undone. This is a club with tradition and character. And we are determined to make sure these qualities keep shining through.

When you are kicked over, you need to bounce back in double-quick style and that has to be our aim next Monday against King's Lynn." At Bath, United were undone by two Graham COLBOURNE strikes, one early in each half. The first goal arrived on 18 minutes when the Bath front man raced through, and despite an attempted clearance by Rennie, retained possession to fire low into the far corner of the net. In the 57th minute, the lead was doubled when COLBOURNE converted from close range after Paul Bastock could only parry a Martin Paul header. Those were the two decisive moments which combined to sentence Boston to their 11th successive loss in visits to Bath since 1982. But the Pilgrims had a few chances to have made an impression - although on the overall balance of play, it was hard to argue against the home side pocketing maximum spoils. In the fifth minute Kevin Noteman fired wide after Mickey Nuttell had headed down a free-kick from Gary Childs. After falling behind, United responded with Lee Power and Childs lofting efforts too high, while a Paul Wilson corner caused mayhem in the home area before the ball was hacked off the line by James. Then in stoppage time Andrew Stanhope fired over and Noteman drilled an effort wide. Other good chances for Bath saw Davis and Harrington bring excellent saves from Bastock.

United team: 1. Paul Bastock, 2. Joby Gowshall, 3. Paul Wilson, 4. Colin Hoyle, 5. Peter Costello, 6. David Rennie, 7. Andrew Stanhope, 8. Gary Childs, 9. Mickey Nuttell, 10. Lee Power, 11. Kevin Noteman, 12. David Norris, 14. Steve Charles, 15. Mark Rawle.