Make no mistake, Saturday's trip to Boston is huge. The Lincolnshire side were one of four teams below Rovers in the league before the midweek fixtures but have now moved ahead of us and, if we are to halt our own slide down the table, then we need to be beating teams like this.

It should also be said that helping Boston towards the Conference would be doing a favour to everyone out there - including plenty of us at gasheads.com - who think that they should have been denied promotion in the first place.

For those who have forgotten, Boston won the Conference in 2001/2 ahead of Dagenham and Redbridge on goal difference. That in itself wasn't a problem but the way in which they got to that position was.

At the beginning of the season there had been more than a few eyebrows raised when the Lincolnshire club made the decision to go full-time and employ a lot of ex-league players and as time went on more and more rumours and questions about Boston's finances were asked.

Eventually - and it took some time - an investigation took place and Boston United, its then Chairman and its manager were all found guilty of financial irregularities. The manager, one Steve Evans, got a 20 month ban from football and an £8,000 fine, the Chairman, Pat Malkinson, a 13 month ban and £5,250 fine and the club was fined £100,000 and deducted four points. The problem was that the four points were deducted from the forthcoming season (2002/3) in Division Three rather than the 2001/2 season in the Conference when the offences had taken place. Not only did this ruling enable Boston to profit from the benefits of being in the Football League (which may well be greater than £100,000 anyway) it also denied Dagenham and Redbridge a place which many feel was rightfully theirs.

Just over 20 months on (yes, it's a significant time period) and Boston are still in the Football League. They may not have achieved as much as some of the others promoted from the Conference in recent years but they are hanging in there and guess who's back? Yep, Steve Evans, the manager at the heart of the financial scandal is once again in charge of The Pilgrims, much to the disgust of plenty of fans across the country and a fair few supporters of Boston United. That said, there are a lot of Pilgrims' fans who believe his legendary motivational skills (he became manager while they were in the Doctor Martins League in 1998) will be the key to them avoiding relegation this season; let's hope they are wrong.

Evans' return was, it seems, engineered by the current Chairman of Boston United, Jon Sotnick. It emerged in February - at the same time that Sotnick took over - that Evans was working for a US division of Hemmingway Employment which is, you guessed it, owned by Sotnick. Shortly after the takeover was complete, the previous Boston manager Neil Thompson left 'by mutual consent', and a friend of Evans', Jim Rodwell, was brought in as caretaker.

Naturally after Evans' ban was complete Rodwell moved upstairs to become Director of Football and the way was clear for his return. It should be said that this time around Evans is not being allowed near players' contracts, and his brief is apparently to deal with football only, but questions surely have to be asked about his suitability for any role within the game. At the moment it just looks as if Boston United, and Steve Evans, are laughing in the authorities' faces.

The club's nickname, by the way, dates back to the Seventeenth Century when the town was a Puritan stronghold. Boston, Lincs was the inspiration for the naming of Boston, Massachusetts when, in the 1630s, some 250 of its residents left for the New World. The Pilgrim Fathers had first tried to sail (illegally it seems) to Holland in 1607 to try and find 'religious freedom' but were caught, tried at the Guildhall (the building is still in Boston) and imprisoned there until 1630. Another notable landmark in the town is 'The Stump' the tower of the 14^th Century St Botolph's Church which stands at over 270 feet and dominate the surrounding flat Lincolnshire landscape.

Anyone travelling by train should note that the train line between Grantham and Skegness (which Boston is on) is closed for engineering work. Buses replace trains on this section of the line and if you want further information then visit the Central Trains website or call them on 0121 634 2040.