Boston Town suffer rare home defeat to Melton Town

It was the first of two tough tests for the Poachers with the top two in the United Counties League visiting Boston in the space of a couple of weeks.

Second place Melton were the visitors but that didn’t stop the hosts making a bright start to the game. Fraser Bayliss came down the left hand side and found the foot of Jordan Nuttell who made it 1-0 to the Poachers in the 14th minute.

Travis Portas returned from an injury which had kept him out for the last two games but on his return, he did fail to keep a clean sheet. Only five minutes after Nuttell scored, Melton equalised through Sam Beaver who powerfully headed the ball past Portas. With just over ten minutes before the break, Luke Wilson was brought down by a Melton defender and a penalty was awarded to Boston. Fraser Bayliss stepped up and made it 2-1, getting his ninth goal of the campaign. The Poachers led 2-1 at Half Time.

Melton were always going to come back out fighting in the second half and they certainly did that quickly. Kairo Edwards-John glided past Jason Field and Richard Ford in the Boston defence but his effort crashed against the crossbar.

With a quarter of an hour left to play. The visitors did find a way through to make it 2-2 as Edwards-John headed home a leveller. Three minutes later, Sam Muggleton found the net with a header at the near post to make it 3-2 as Melton led for the first time in the match.

Things went from bad to worse for the Poachers as they found themselves down to ten men with Liam Adams getting sent off. The game ended in a defeat for Boston Town.

They now face Winterton Rangers away in the Lincolnshire Senior Trophy on Wednesday (23rd Nov) and face league leaders Loughborough Students at home next Saturday (26th Nov).

Boston Town manager Martyn Bunce said: “We can compete with teams at the top of the league so we do look to progress into the semi final of the county cup and bounce back in the league next Saturday as we haven’t lost two on the bounce in the league yet.

"I thought we started really well today and looked like a match really. They never really looked to open us up but we did fail to defend crosses which was why lost today.”