NON-LEAGUE FOOTBALL: Blackstones in cup final action

Chris Jones (right) in action for Northern Star at Newport Pagnell on Saturday. Picture: Tim Gates

Stones head to Lincoln City’s Sincil Bank ground for a Lincs Senior Trophy final showdown with Winterton and will be looking for a distinct improvment on Saturday’s UCL Division One defeat at Stewart & Lloyds.

They lost 3-0 and Stones manager Phil Gadsby said: “We were comprehensively beaten. I don’t think you could have picked a worse game to have before a cup final. We probably had one eye on that.”

UCL Premier Division rivals Deeping Rangers and Peterborough Northern Star will be in action in a Hinchingbrooke Cup semi-final at the Haydon Whitham Stadium and Star will be desperately keen to hang on to the trophy they won last season.

In fact tonight’s game is a repeat of last year’s final where Star emerged victorious 2-1 to lift the trophy.

They are two very different teams this season though with two different managers at the helm. Ex-Star joint manager Michael Goode is manager at Deeping Rangers and Raff Mazzarella recently took over at Star.

Deeping currently sit ninth in the UCL Premier Division table with Star in 16th placr. The previous meetings this season have ended with a 4-1 home win for Star back in September with Deeping taking the spoils at Outgang Road 4-2 in January.