Francis puts Town on Parr for promotion

UCL Premier Division

St Neots Town 1 Boston Town 0

A NARROW victory against the pre-match league leaders for the second week running thrust St Neots right back into the promotion shake-up.

Having got the better of Deeping Rangers at Rowley Park last week, Saints again delivered the goods at home, despite missing leading scorer Barrington Belgrave.

It was former Huntingdon Town man Ryan Francis who provided the match winner on 56 minutes with a cool finish.

Town manager Iain Parr said: "Like last week the game had a one goal feel about it. The players that have joined us in the last couple of months have started to gel and now handle these tense situations much better."

Saints had much the better of an opening half that saw an over-committed Boston team have three players yellow carded in the first 15 minutes.

St Neots dominated for long spells, with the visitors content to sit back and wait for the chance to break.

The hosts made a couple of half chances but it was Boston who were closest to a goal when Paul Bloss had to be alert to clear a Garath Pritchard header off the line.

A goalless first half was par for the course, but that all changed when the fast-improving Luigi Rocco crashed down the left, skipping through two tackles. His cross was met by Kevin Byrne, whose knock down to Francis was well controlled and he slipped the ball home.

Jon Hoggett had another half chance to increase the hosts' lead and Francis should have sealed things but headed over from close range before the final whistle.

Boston paid the price for the early bookings as Ollie Pinner saw red and the visitors finished with 10 men.

Parr said: "We looked at the holiday matches and knew we had to perform, I'm very pleased with the outcome of the recent games and we need to take this form into our next matches to give ourselves a real chances of success in the league."

n Next up for St Neots is a visit to Blackstones on Saturday.