McDermott anger after Alfreton are beaten at Boston

Alfreton Town's wait for an elusive maiden win at Boston United stretched to a 56th season when John McDermott suffered his first setback as Reds' manager on Tuesday night.
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It left boss John McDermott disappointed at his side’s failure to get going.

He said: “Disappointed and frustrated to be honest, because l don’t think we got off the bus - l don’t know what was up with them, they just seemed to match them at their game and they out-bullied us - won everything and we were just launching it - we set our teams up to go out and play and there were too many players who didn’t want to come and play tonight.

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“Some of the goals we conceded were schoolboy and we should have dealt with that.

Overall l’m disappointed with how we’ve played, or not played as we haven’t played at all - it was hoof-ball and we were not getting the seconds and l can’t stomach watching that.

“l feel sorry for the fans who’ve come all this way to watch and going on to expect us to pass the ball around and move people around and find space.

“l think we did it once second half and it wasn’t until Billy [Whitehouse] came on and decided to put his foot on the ball and say ‘right, l’ll have that’ and the reason for us slicing the ball out was that they were trying to do it first time and not put their foot on the ball.

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“l’ve told them in there l won’t stomach it - l know it’s only the second game in and there’s no panic, but l’ve seen enough there to worry me a little bit - we just folded tonight and didn’t give them a game - we deserved what we got - nothing.”

Both Gregg Smith and Tyrell Waite had gone close for the Pilgrims before Waite’s 16th minute bye-line cross was swept home by Mason Warren after Reds’ keeper Chris Elliott could only palm the ball into the scorer’s path.

Alfreton had been frustratingly benign up to that point, but launched a couple of attacks that brought about an equaliser within five minutes of going behind, skipper Craig Disley’s blocked shot rebounding for Craig Westcarr to find the net with an angled drive.

A similar effort from Westcarr was blocked by keeper George Willis before Boston regained the lead five minutes before the break, Jordan Keane on hand this time to capitalise at the near post after Elliott had parried a stinging drive from Waite.

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The Reds’ keeper made a couple of superb saves in the remainder of the first half though to deny Smith and Brad Beatson, the latter a reflex reaction as the ball reared up off the roughest. most uneven six-yard box they are likely to experience all season.

A much more determined start to the second half by the visitors saw Sam Topliss lob the ball on to the top of the crossbar from wide right after Westcarr’s cross had led to sub Chris Sharp’s glancing header being retrieved by Billy Priestley in the 62nd minute, then seven minutes later Willis smothered the ball as Sharp homed in on Priestley’s header into the box.

However the turning point came in the 72nd minute when a jinking run by Billy Whitehouse led to Brody Robertson sending a free header wide of the near post from eight yards, last season’s top scorer with Cleethorpes Town also poking the ball wide under pressure from aTom Platt through-ball after United had added a third goal.

The killer third goal came 13 minutes from time from Smith’s diving header from a left-wing corner.

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