Sleath upbeat after midweek win

Danny Sleath

Boston United midfielder Danny Sleath is urging his team-mates not to get carried away — despite Tuesday’s excellent away win against promotion rivals Retford United.

The Pilgrims were 2-1 victors at Cannon Park, which helped avenge an early season defeat to Retford at The Jakemans Stadium.

Sleath felt the result was warranted — but warned against complacency as the run-in gets under way.

Reflecting on the Retford win, Sleath told bufc.co.uk: “It was a great result and it is what you have to do at tough places if you want to be around the top of the table.

“We got pinned back a little bit during the second half, but I think we deserved to win.”

Sleath’s first half goal capped an excellent performance from the diminutive midfielder — and left the former Mansfield Town trainee revelling in his goalscoring glory.

Asked whether he was surprised to see himself scoring among giant opposition, Sleath replied: “I am quite big! I am not that small! After the second ball bounced, Spencer peeled off to the left and I opted to make a late run into the box.

“When Spencer lofted the ball up, I arrived to head the ball back across goal and got a good connection. It was great to see it go in.

“In terms of my delivery for the second goal, with big lads in the box, I tried to whip the ball in around the back stick, and we duly got our rewards.”

Sleath feels that the Pilgrims have developed as a unit since their first encounter against Retford back in September.

“We have definitely come together as a team a lot more,” added Sleath. “We have definitely progressed as a whole unit and learned how to grind out a result. We were perhaps a naive before.

“Having said that though, we cannot get carried away. We won one hard game (at Retford), but there are plenty more hard games to come. If we take one game at a time, we will be alright, but we cannot think we are promoted yet.

“We would rather have the points on the board and lots of good teams still need to play each other, so hopefully we will see a few draws.”

Boston travel to Curzon Ashton on Saturday in the Challenge Cup semi-final — the ground on which Sleath and his Ilkeston Town team-mates played in last season’s showpiece final.

“As a club you always want to win silverware,” said Sleath.

“We have a semi-final on Saturday and a final on Tuesday (at Grantham), so we have our eyes on some silverware, ahead of the big prize which is up-for-grabs at the end of the season.”