Saturday 12th November 2022
UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE SPORTS DEVELOPMENT CUP – 3RD ROUND
BOSTON TOWN v COGENHOE UNITED
Mortgages for You Stadium,
Tattershall Road,
Boston,
Lincs.
PE21 9LR
KO 3pm.
Since the latest re-structuring of the league by the F.A, our once regular trips to Lincolnshire have become a thing of the past, but the KO Cup, now sponsored by Sports Ground Development, has given us the opportunity re-acquaint ourselves with our old friends and long-time opponents Boston Town. It will also be good to play at their lovely old ground which features covered terracing the whole length of the side opposite the main stand, plus cover behind the bottom goal, situated in the pleasant Witham Way Country Park through which flows the River Witham at its broadest as it heads into the sea not too many miles away.
Over the last few years The Poachers have usually been around the middle of the table, never really threatened with relegation or looking like taking the title, but they are usually a difficult to beat on their home patch. This year they are at the top of the bunch chasing the top five position, eleven points behind the current leaders Loughborough Students, but twenty-one points clear of the relegation zone. Last Saturday they clinched a late win over strugglers AFC Mansfield thanks to a goal from Marshall Young some three minutes into added time at the end of the game. An own goal had given The Poachers the lead on just 3 minutes, but the visitors equalised on the hour. They only had ten men when the scored the winner following the sending-off of the influential Lee Beeson, so he will start his three-match ban this weekend, joining another well-known face to the Cooks, Fraser Bayliss, on the sidelines. Long serving keeper Travis Portas is also out of action at the moment through injury, but they still have plenty of players in their squad that we have come up against in the past before the Premier Division split. Current form is very good with just one defeat at Anstey Nomads from their last nine games so this is likely to be a good work-out for the Cooks youngsters if they want to progress into the next round.
The Cooks will be able to call on Harley Mallard following his one-match ban, but keeper Ash Bodycote will have to sit this one out again due to being cup-tied, as will new signing Bruce Tsinosis who has joined us from Long Buckby this week, but fellow new-boy Jamie Snapes may well feature at some point. We have beaten Rainworth Miners Welfare 4-0 and West Bridgford 4-1 to get to this stage, whilst our hosts have seen off Grantham Town Academy 7-1 and Kimberley Miners Welfare 2-1 so far. We picked up our first home league win in our last game when we saw off Godmanchester Rovers 2-1 in a Friday night game with an own goal and Luca Purse on target to make it two wins on the spin and with just one defeat in our previous six games, the Cooks are starting to grow in stature as many of the squad take theie first steps into this level of men’s football.
Our previous visit to Boston was back in October 2018 when a 29th minute goal from Jordan Tate won the game for the Poachers, but the previous season the league had sent us there on a Thursday night and Montel Dore had won the game for us with a 32nd minute goal, although we also had young keeper Callum Patching to thank for a fantastic save in the second half.
UHLSPORT UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE – RESERVE DIVISION
COGENHOE UNITED RESERVES v RAUNDS TOWN RESERVES
Compton Park,
Brafield Rd,
Cogenhoe.
NN7 1ND
KO 2-pm
Ian Adcock’s team play the second of three straight home games when they entertain bottom club Raunds Town. It has been a torrid start to the season for the Shopmates second team as they are still searching for their first win and are currently -1 on points, 15 behind 12th placed Cogenhoe. They were unable to get a team out on the day we were due to travel to Kiln Park, but since then a new management team have come in and things have started to turn around. Memories of the 13-0 defeat at MK Irish are slowly being erased and they have drawn two of the last four games, both 1-1 and away from home as they took points off Desborough Town and Huntingdon Town and although they were beaten 2-1 at home by Chenecks last weekend, they have come a long way in the last few weeks. The Cooks were also beaten last time out as Daventry Town took all three points at Compton Park as despite goals from Lee Felgate and debutant Dan Webb, the visitors ran out 4-2 winners ending the Cooks three-game unbeaten run.
