diff --git a/spacy/matcher/matcher.pyx b/spacy/matcher/matcher.pyx
index 7f3c3488f..4cfab915f 100644
--- a/spacy/matcher/matcher.pyx
+++ b/spacy/matcher/matcher.pyx
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ import warnings
 from ..typedefs cimport attr_t
 from ..structs cimport TokenC
 from ..vocab cimport Vocab
-from ..tokens.doc cimport Doc, get_token_attr
+from ..tokens.doc cimport Doc, get_token_attr_for_matcher
 from ..tokens.span cimport Span
 from ..tokens.token cimport Token
 from ..attrs cimport ID, attr_id_t, NULL_ATTR, ORTH, POS, TAG, DEP, LEMMA
@@ -549,7 +549,7 @@ cdef char get_is_match(PatternStateC state,
     spec = state.pattern
     if spec.nr_attr > 0:
         for attr in spec.attrs[:spec.nr_attr]:
-            if get_token_attr(token, attr.attr) != attr.value:
+            if get_token_attr_for_matcher(token, attr.attr) != attr.value:
                 return 0
     for i in range(spec.nr_extra_attr):
         if spec.extra_attrs[i].value != extra_attrs[spec.extra_attrs[i].index]:
@@ -720,7 +720,7 @@ class _RegexPredicate(object):
         if self.is_extension:
             value = token._.get(self.attr)
         else:
-            value = token.vocab.strings[get_token_attr(token.c, self.attr)]
+            value = token.vocab.strings[get_token_attr_for_matcher(token.c, self.attr)]
         return bool(self.value.search(value))
 
 
@@ -741,7 +741,7 @@ class _SetMemberPredicate(object):
         if self.is_extension:
             value = get_string_id(token._.get(self.attr))
         else:
-            value = get_token_attr(token.c, self.attr)
+            value = get_token_attr_for_matcher(token.c, self.attr)
         if self.predicate == "IN":
             return value in self.value
         else:
@@ -768,7 +768,7 @@ class _ComparisonPredicate(object):
         if self.is_extension:
             value = token._.get(self.attr)
         else:
-            value = get_token_attr(token.c, self.attr)
+            value = get_token_attr_for_matcher(token.c, self.attr)
         if self.predicate == "==":
             return value == self.value
         if self.predicate == "!=":
diff --git a/spacy/tokens/doc.pxd b/spacy/tokens/doc.pxd
index 7f231887f..6536d271d 100644
--- a/spacy/tokens/doc.pxd
+++ b/spacy/tokens/doc.pxd
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ from ..attrs cimport attr_id_t
 
 
 cdef attr_t get_token_attr(const TokenC* token, attr_id_t feat_name) nogil
+cdef attr_t get_token_attr_for_matcher(const TokenC* token, attr_id_t feat_name) nogil
 
 
 ctypedef const LexemeC* const_Lexeme_ptr
diff --git a/spacy/tokens/doc.pyx b/spacy/tokens/doc.pyx
index 867c2bf6b..4dc438695 100644
--- a/spacy/tokens/doc.pyx
+++ b/spacy/tokens/doc.pyx
@@ -79,6 +79,16 @@ cdef attr_t get_token_attr(const TokenC* token, attr_id_t feat_name) nogil:
         return Lexeme.get_struct_attr(token.lex, feat_name)
 
 
+cdef attr_t get_token_attr_for_matcher(const TokenC* token, attr_id_t feat_name) nogil:
+    if feat_name == SENT_START:
+        if token.sent_start == 1:
+            return True
+        else:
+            return False
+    else:
+        return get_token_attr(token, feat_name)
+
+
 def _get_chunker(lang):
     try:
         cls = util.get_lang_class(lang)