Goals impress Stones, despite Horncastle Town’s defeat to Boston United in John Rawdon Memorial Trophy

Horncastle Town 2 Boston United 3

Mickey Stones was pleased to see hard work from the training ground coming off on Friday night, even if his Horncastle Town side were beaten in the John Rawdon Memorial Trophy.

Luke Blondel and Jake O’Callaghan found the net for the Wongers, but finishes from Harry Cranfield, Henry Beedham and Ben Johnson saw the youthful Boston United XI come out victors on a night which remembers former Town manager and Pilgrims reserve player John.

“It was a real good test for us,” said Town boss Mickey Stones.

“They were a good young side, much stronger than last year.”

While Stones questioned whether taking an early lead had a negative impact on his side’s attitude, he remained delighted with the manner in which his team found the net at The Wong.

“We started really well and maybe relaxed after that,” he continued.

“But I’m happy with our goals. They were real positives.

“Both started with the keeper and, after about 10 or 11 passes, we scored.

“It’s something we’ve been working on in training. Two or three friendlies isn’t enough to get it completely right, but it’s staring to work how we want.

“We want to play attacking football and we’ve scored 11 goals in our first three friendlies. All the goals have come from centre forwards, which shows we’ve got the right people scoring goals.”

While Stones was pleased with the way his side scored, he believes things need to tighten up at the back.

“All three goals came from set pieces,” Stones said, suggesting the loss of long-term skipper Chris Johnson may have had an early impact.

“We discussed on Friday night whether losing Jonno had something to do with it.

“We’ve been relying on him to organise the defence for 12 years and we just need someone else to take responsibility.

“Steve Pickering has moved up from the reserves and he’s more than capable of doing a job for us. So it Browny (captain Steve Brown), but it’s just about someone organising the defence a bit more.”

Town return to action tomorrow night when they host Fulbeck in their penultimate friendly (KO 7.30pm).