Harriers were brought crashing back down to earth with a bump at lowly Boston. After their midweek
heroics at Exeter Harriers were second in every department and completely outplayed and outfought by a
Boston team who were more up for the clash.
On one of the worst playing surfaces in the division Harriers started brightly, soaking up pressure from
their hosts and coming close to opening the scoring on a couple of occasions. After 15 minutes Sam
Shilton's right wing corner was headed wide by Dion Scott and four minutes later Adie Smith carried the
ball out of defence through the inside right channel but blazed his long range shot over the bar.
Boston took the lead after 23 minutes, Craig Hinton kept the ball in play on the left touchline rather
than let it go out for a throw and it was played back into the danger area for Richard Logan to fire a
shot inside the far post. Two minutes later Tom Bennett hit a 25 yard shot just past the post as
Harriers' defence fell to pieces. Boston were winning the game in the midfield, all of their players
closing down the Harriers much quicker and not letting them settle on the ball, and they adapted their
style of play to the poor surface better and took a much more direct route forward than Harriers who too
often tried to play football.
In the last minute of the half the home team doubled their advantage, the ball was played over the top of
the Harriers defence and Simon Weatherstone, who had beaten the offside trap, hammered his shot into the
roof of the net.
After the interval Harriers manager Ian Britton made a change in an attempt to shore up the defence, bringing
on Lee Ayres in place of the ineffective JJ Melligan and switching to a 4-4-2 formation. The move stemmed
the flow of Boston attacks and allowed Harriers more possession but they never really threatened to get back
into the game. With twenty minutes remaining they suffered another setback when, with all of their
substitutes used, Dean Bennett limped off with a hamstring innjury and they had to play out the rest of the
game with ten men.
Thirteen minutes from the end home keeper Paul Bastock was finally called into action when Harriers managed
their one and only on target goal attempt of the afternoon, Sean Parrish's volley being tipped over for a
corner. Boston added another goal in the closing minutes, Tom Bennett's pass set Logan free and he held
off the challenge of Ayres before slotting his shot under Digby to complete a good afternoon's work for The
Pilgrims.
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