Hope is ready to meet the Pilgrims challenge
Chris Hope is relishing the challenge of taking on Boston United tomorrow.
Corby Town face the Pilgrims at Rockingham Triangle in what is arguably the game of the day in the Blue Square Bet North as it pits fourth against fifth.
To Listen to our team of writers give their views on Corby Town, Rushden & Diamonds and Kettering Town , click the green button.
Both sides are in form with the Steelmen having won four of their first six games while the Pilgrims, who are new into the league this year, have made an even better start with five wins to date.
Their squad boast some impressive names including Spencer Weir-Daley and former Rushden & Diamonds man Gareth Jelleyman.
Furthermore, Boston have been full of goals of late with nine against Redditch and six before half-time at Harrogate last week.
It means a tough test lies ahead for Hope and the rest of his defensive colleagues.
But it's a test the experienced centre-half can't wait to face.
"Obviously they've started like a house on fire and have been scoring lots of goals and you always have to be respectful of teams who are playing like that," he said.
"But I really enjoy these sort of games when the opposition forwards are in a bit of form because that's what you want as a defender.
"You want to test yourself against the best in the league.
"We're all up for up for it and we're all looking forward to it in defence but we're also looking forward to it as a team too.
"This season, the defending has been a real team effort, not just the back four, but the midfield and forwards have put in a good shift too and we'll need to do that again tomorrow."
The Pilgrims are slowly making their way back up the footballing ladder after a combination of relegations and demotions saw them drop from the Football League to the UniBond League.
Hope himself never faced the Pilgrims while he and they were both in the Football League – the closest he came was a pre-season friendly while at Scunthorpe United.
But he knows that, whatever the level, Boston will be hard opponents.
And now that they appear to have put the bad times behind them and are on the up again, Hope thinks a good contest could be on the cards tomorrow.
"They are in good form but so are we," he continued.
"We're not giving a lot away while at the same time getting the odd goal.
"The main thing is that we've got a good start but it is only a start and it would be nice to keep it going.
"They've started really well too but they've also had a loss in there as well and that's what we should be confident about.
"This is a funny league and already we have already seen some strange results in the first few weeks.
"I was surprised, for example, to see that Blyth beat Droylsden the other week, so these funny results can happen.
"The main thing for us is that we are going into the game on the back of a win against Hinckley.
"That result in itself was important for us as we had lost at Eastwood the game before which was frustrating.
"But we know that these things are going to happen and that we're not going to play well and win every week.
"The key thing is that we bounced back quickly and we tended not to do that last season.
"When we lost a game, we often had a little run of two of three without win whereas this year, as we showed against Hinckley, we got straight back on the horse and won again."
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Weather for Kettering
Monday 13 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 5 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
