Simpson praise for Boston’s adaptability in adversity
BOSTON United first team coach Joe Simpson praised the adaptability of the team in their goalless draw at Chester FC, as they adjusted well to unforeseen circumstances.
The Pilgrims delivered a resilient performance to protect injured goalkeeper Cameron Gregory and battle their way to a clean sheet and a valuable point.
Boston were good value for their share of the spoils, with Gregory sustaining an ankle injury in the first half but playing on bravely.
He made a super save in the second half to deny Harrison Burke, while Jacob Hazel forced Wyll Stanway into a fine late stop at the other end as honours ended even.
It was Boston’s first league pouting in over two weeks due to last weekend’s postponement, which gave Ian Culverhouse and his players time to reset and work on some new patterns of play both on and off the ball which stood them in good stead on Saturday.
Being able to deal with having an injured goalkeeper in the net for a large portion of the game, showed another side to Boston’s game which impressed their coach.
The result extended the winless run, but it was a wellearned point that can be built on moving forward.
Simpson said: “If you look at the result in isolation, looking at Chester and the teams they have beaten recently, I think it is a great result after a couple of weeks off which gave us the chance to embed some new ideas.
“For our goalkeeper to have to play 75 minutes on one leg, it’s a great point and I don’t think there will be many teams that come here and keep a clean sheet.
“We need to try and build on this as best we can, but the boys deserve a lot of credit.
“Everyone can see the kind of team that we want to be in terms of being possessionbased, but to do that, sometimes you need to go back to your goalkeeper to restart, but we couldn’t do that because he physically couldn’t kick or move.
“Every time the ball went behind the backline, they had to do something unnatural because of the injury and we’ve had to manage that because we weren’t able to settle until we got up the pitch, so massive credit to all of them and I’m delighted they have something to show for their efforts.”