Anthony Limbrick impressed with Boston United's organisation and work rate under Graham Coughlan

A run of six games without defeat under former Newport boss Graham Coughlan has seen Boston, who looked dead and buried at the turn of the year, move to within just two points of National League safety. The Pilgrims, who have won all of their last five games away from home, know that another victory this weekend could see Pools move to within their sights.

Pools, by contrast, are without a win in their last eight matches and haven't picked up three points at the Prestige Group Stadium since New Year's Day. With Pools nine points clear of the Pilgrims but having played two games more, defeat at the weekend could see Limbrick's side dragged right into a relegation battle. While there have been one or two signs of improvement in their recent performances against Eastleigh and Solihull Moors, continued uncertainty about the future of the club following the resignation of chairman Raj Singh, a recent lack of goals and apparent absence of confidence as well as a number of costly defensive errors have left Pools looking nervously over their shoulders.

Pilgrims boss Graham Coughlan knows what it takes to come out on the right side of a relegation dogfight having steered Newport clear of trouble in League Two for successive campaigns. The straight-talking Irishman has favoured a five at the back formation since taking charge in Lincolnshire and looks to have made the Pilgrims far more difficult to play against, with Boston keeping clean sheets against Barnet, Braintree, Oldham and Yeovil in their last 10 games. Limbrick was full of praise for Coughlan's work and admits he is anticipating a tough test this weekend.

"Watching them, I think they're very organised, extremely organised," he said.

"They play sort of a 5-3-2 but with two high strikers. The strikers stay quite high, the five are quite flat and they're very solid, compact and hard to break down. They hit teams on the counter well, they've definitely improved with their work rate from what we've seen in recent weeks; they're really working hard for each other. They've got a formula there where they've found out what they're good at and they're delivering at the moment."