Me and my big mouth or should it be pen!

Last week I wrote how the squad was returning to full strength, with one or two getting match fitness in the Reserves, only to lose two players that very same morning to injury, and a third “Red carded”!
The damaged Simon Cracknell should only be out for a couple of weeks, and Tom Amis received a five week suspension.

The real disaster was summer signing Barry Allard, who has damaged knee ligaments and is out for the rest of the season. For us and Barry, this is a real blow, as he has made a huge impact since joining the club, scoring or creating goals on a regular basis.

Then to make matters worse, Tom Halliwell’s wife was taken ill just before departure on Saturday, and Rob Browne limped off 2 minutes into the second half with an injury that looks to be sidelining him for a month.

What with the recent departures to Loddon of Matt Cawston and Richard Way, plus Craig Hunton back to Bungay following a management shuffle in his home town (I wish them all well), it looks like we will have to venture into the transfer market to swell our numbers/options.
As the Reserves also have some injury challenges, it was good to see Paul Kemp making a comeback after another long term injury.

So in summary I will not be making that injury statement again!!

So to the game, the issues above meant we had to shuffle the pack, with Rob Connolly making his first start for almost two years, yes, you guessed it, since returning from injury!) and Sam Wenham filling the left hand side slot. It gave us a solid looking line up but one that perhaps lacked our normal cutting edge. The objective, to gain 3 points what ever the score and keep things tight.

The game was not a classic, as Beccles with their own problems adopted a similarly cautious approach, lining up 4-5-1, making themselves hard to beat.

With the midfield area packed, it made free flowing football difficult, and led to some confusion around how we fully utilised the extra men at the back.  However, we did dominate early proceedings, obtaining several corners.
Rob Brown was making things difficult for the home defenders with his pace, and it was he who opened the scoring, driving a loose ball into the roof of the net.
Having got in front, the half time talk was all around utilising the space at the back and not being over adventurous, having got ourselves in a winning position.
The second half started badly when Browny limped off (and was hospitalised) to be replaced by Tom Amis. It was a much more even affair; however we eventually got goal number two, when Sam Wenham scrambled the ball home at the far post.

Beccles had opened up going 4-4-2, and pulled a goal back, which caused some anxious moments as the game came to a close, but the mission was accomplished, as the referee brought the game to a close at 2-1.
In a victory that was ‘ground’ out rather than ‘carved’, Ben player epitomised the attitude needed on the day and this secured him “man of the match”.
Cuddy pulled off one fantastic save in the first half, which combined with another steady performance, secured him second spot.
With most results going to form on Saturday, this leaves us still sitting in 4th spot, but not bad having just been promoted and the half way stage reached.