Not all I'd feared

Boston United vs Guisley Guiseley

I'll be honest; I thought we were going to get spanked.  Absolutely battered in fact.  We've been poor recently, as poor as the local media's spelling of "Guisley".  This can only have been exacerbated by missing out on a good slab of money following last weeks debacle against Gloucester.  Luton away would have been a smashing trip for me as well.  Such is life. There was small cause for optimism though; the Pilgrims starting line up was subject to six changes as injured players came back into contention.  Boston were actually able to name a defence for this match, which was an enormous bonus, as Pearson and Jelleyman came into the back line and Nyoni slotted in to a defensive midfield role.  Church and Coleman were both pushed forward into the centre and the left of midfield respectively with Sleath, Clarke and Yates missing out.  Semple and Davidson replaced Newsham and Suarez whilst Haystead returned from being cup-tied.  One other small cause for hope, Boston usually play well against better teams...

Boston on the offensive in front of the Town End.

The game started fairly evenly with few chances.  Guiseley were passing the ball around well and fashioned the first chance of the game from a corner but were unable to take advantage.  Davidson set up Coleman for Boston but then couldn't control the rebound as Coleman's shot was blocked.  Pearson, a lad who the Pilgrims have missed massively, took things into his own hands.  After winning the ball well inside his own half he went on a meandering run to the edge of the Guiseley box before laying the ball off to Semple.  He wasn't finished there though as he continued the run to get on the end of Semple's cross.  Sadly the finish was wayward and the move didn't see the goal that it deserved.  Coleman had a couple more chances before the break and looked to be the danger man for Boston, unfortunately his efforts were either wide or easily gathered by the Guiseley 'keeper.  Church struck a dipping effort which was collected by the 'keeper without too much trouble whilst O'Neill hit the Pilgrims' side netting in reply for Guiseley.  It was a tight half of few chances with the ball spending most of the time in the middle third of the pitch.  So far, so good.

Guiseley clear their lines.

Guiseley were sent out a good two or three minutes before the Boston players at the start of the second half.  They'd clearly got some sort of talking to and it showed.  The Yorkshire club penned their Bostonian rivals back for much of the second half.  It was backs to the wall stuff from the Pilgrims whose defence were sitting on the edge of the six yard box.  Haystead was called into action on numerous occasions and performed admirably.  He was helped out by his defenders putting tackles and blocks in wherever they could.  There was Guiseley goal coming, it was just a matter of when.  67 minutes was when.  A Guiseley corner headed home with power by Simon Ainge burst the Pilgrims bubble and it was difficult to see how Boston could come back into the game.

Guiseley restart having conceded the equalizer.

But come back into the game they did!  The substitutions lined up before the goal were made with Clarke replacing Nyoni at centre midfield and Sleath replacing Coleman.  Sleath's impact was almost instant; the excellent Semple got free down the right and flighted a cross to a completely unmarked Sleath at the back post, who had time to compose himself before hammering the shot home just two minutes after the Pilgrims had conceded themselves.  What a substitution!  It does beg the question "what does Danny Sleath have to do to come back into the starting line-up?"  Man of the match last week and goal-scorer with almost his first touch as a sub this, he is definitely making a case for himself.

With the game wide open again both teams went hunting for a winner, the Pilgrims threw on Suarez for Davidson in an attempt to find it.  However, Guiseley returned to penning the Pilgrims back and almost took advantage when the ball was smashed across the face of the goal, luckily for Boston there was no-one to poke home and the cross-come-shot missed the back stick by a hairs-breadth.  The Pilgrims managed to hold out for their first, league, home draw for fourteen months.  A great point against a team who were obviously better than us.  More importantly a good performance which has been much needed after the recent run of games.

Next-up: Boston host a Redditch side languishing at the foot of the table.