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Pilgrims 0-2 Leicester City

Friendly

by Barbara Singleton

Goals in the dying stages of each half from James Scowcroft and Kevin Ellison settled an entertaining and friendly encounter in favour of Premiership outfit Leicester City. But Conference hosts Boston United made a good fist of trying to match their more illustrious visitors. And arguably on the balance of play might have merited at least a draw - a fact not lost on either manager. Foxes' chief Dave Bassett said: "We had intended to use the match as a fixture for our reserves, but I felt it was worth giving a number of our first teamers a run-out. And it proved a useful exercise. They are going well in their league and showed that they can play a bit. They have a few useful players in their side and gave us a good test." United boss Steve Evans said: "We got what we wanted out of the workout, but I thought we possibly deserved more for our efforts." Boston, in fact, might have taken an early lead on two occasions. First a neatly clipped Mickey Brown centre was forcefully headed goalwards by Ross Weatherstone, but Simon Royce saved well. Then, on 10 minutes, the City keeper made a hash of dealing with a low right-foot drive from James Gould.

The ball slipped through his grasp, but dribbled past a post. City finished the first half with a flourish and two chances came their way before the breakthrough arrived. First Calum Davidson crossed for Akinbiyi to force a parrying save from Paul Bastock. And from the Andy Impey's corner Matthew Heath saw a header booted off the line. But on the stroke of half-time City went ahead. Akinbiyi found space down the right. His crossed eluded Monington and Clifford and SCOWCROFT dived in bravely to head home. Leicester settled the issue on 84 minutes when ELLISON ran on to a Matt Jones threaded pass, rounded Bastock and slotted in.

Boston team: 1. Bastock, 2. Clifford, 3. Gould (Lodge 15), 4. R. Weatherstone, 5. Monington (Wornham 46), 6. Ellender, 7. Rusk, 8. Town (Elding 59), 9. Murphy (Angel 66), 10. Brown (Eaton 82), 11. Cook. Subs (not used): Conroy, Hart.

Leicester team: 1. Simon Royce, 2. Lee Marshall, 3. Frank Sinclair, 4. Callum Davidson, 5. Matthew Heath, 6. Derek Niven, 7. Matthew Jones, 8. Matthew Piper, 9. Ade Akinbiyi, 10. James Scowcroft, 11. Andrew Impey. Subs: Trevor Benjamin, Danny Thomas, Damien Delaney, Kevin Ellison, Junior Lewis, Martin Reeves.


This report originally appeared in the Lincolnshire Echo.