Bulls Inch to Safety

With Spring in the air Hereford made two changes. Loanee Lawton came in at left back with Visser; Hodgkiss (c), Amadi-Holloway and Lilly completing the defence. At times the midfield five made an arc of McLean, Jarvis, the returning Haines and Pinchard plus Storey, with Barnett up front. Egan, Hanson and Lloyd dropping to the bench alongside Pendley and Holmes. An impressive 104 journeyed for Lincolnshire with Boston considerably under performing their budget this season. Perhaps the nice weather persuaded Bulls fans to come out with 1505 more than many expected after several hours without a goal.

There was a minute’s applause to remember giantkiller Alan Jones, a club legend. He wil eternally be in any most handsome Bulls eleven. Whilst the quality was variable this was a pleasing game to watch with both teams going for the win that would probably make them safe. There was hardly any time wasting, a refreshing change. Boston were the brighter testing Vissser and Chadwick showing elusiveness. Hereford came back and had three strikes on goal in the first fifteen minutes. Pilgrims captain Shiels caught Storey nastily and referee Jones failed to book, possibly because only ten minutes had been played. The man in black had a poor game missing opportunities to play advantage. He booked Lawton after twenty five minutes for a lesser foul.

Chance For Ryan Mclean

Storey was getting joy down the left putting in good crosses but when he shot he was nearer to hitting the Marches Timber advert hanging off the top of the Blackfriars roof than hitting the target.

 

Both Jarvis and Hodgkiss also fired high at the timber advert. Returned Ben Pollock was playing well in the centre of the Pilgrims defence. A fine player the Bulls surprisingly failed to test Ben’s lack of speed and could not produce a passage of play to leave him one on one with the pace of either McLean or Storey.

Tyrone Barnett And Ben Pollock

Visser failed to cleanly punch away a cross and Thorndike should have scored but Lilly blocked and Burrow struck again but the ball was cleared. Storey and McLean continued to attack in an open game where neither side had the quality to break the deadlock before halftime.

A Cross From Mclean Finds Storey

Klukowski fired the Bulls up at the break, McLean broke from the kick off and found Storey at the back post. Miles hit it hard and low. Keeper Gregory looked beaten but desperately stuck out a leg to make a fine save. The Bulls came again. A long ball to Barnett saw classic centre forward play with Ty releasing the ball to McLean who burst free and running diagonally into the inside left channel drew Gregory and shot across him. The finish was perfect. Hitting the far post and giving the Bulls the lead. 

Hereford failed to capitalise allowing Boston to battle back and not seeking to punish them on the break. Haines was booked for a foul. 

One big difference with Klukowski is he often takes booked players off quickly and Luke was immediately substituted with Lloyd coming on. Boston had more of the play and to break things up Hanson came on for Jarvis. Jarvis seems to be unable to play a full ninety minutes and Jethro brought extra vigour. His quality was variable with a poor diagonal pass to Storey which was well behind Miles. A second goal would surely have secured the points. Hanson also put in an awful cross from the left but was more mobile across the field.

Boston brought on Wright for Thorndike. Both sides were creating opportunities but failing to find a cutting edge. It was entertaining to see a team trying to play football and Boston got their reward. Nixon and Chadwick played around Storey and Chadwick put in a deep cross. Lilly and Amadi-Holloway who had played well got caught out so that Wright was left one on one with the shorter Hodgkiss. Wright won the header but Visser made an athletic save pushing the ball on to the post. Burrow who had been in the centre backs pocket reacted first for a six inch tap in.

He was rewarded by being subbed with Mitford coming on. Both sides still went for the win. As the game got stretched more Pinchard made several enterprising bursts forward with one delightful dribble. This was Harry’s best performance of 2023.

Chadwick who had hit two well placed free kicks over the bar finally tested Visser but Dino made a good save. Barnett had put in a good shift and was replaced by Holmes. Hereford had one final chance with Lloyd shooting at the back post. The ball appeared to take a slight deflection and hit the post.

The two most under performing sides in the division had showed lots of flashes but their inability to convert good play into goals  explained why both look likely to finish in the bottom half. The team were applauded at the end. Many players had good games. Match sponsors AKI technical moulding chose Storey as man of the match and Miles was the most dangerous attacker.