Late winner sends Melford 9th

Frederico Dende’s last-gasp strike fired Long Melford into the top half of the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division.

In a high octane, low quality match home side Whitton United can count themselves unfortunate to get nothing from a game they worked extremely hard to stay in.

The home side were without several notable names and faced a Melford side on the up after beating Mildenhall and Newmarket recently.

Despite the difference in current form, it was the home side who came out with the better energy and intensity.

Melford had plenty of the ball but Whitton succeeded in making it a scrappy game that suited them.

Melford created chances with the busy Hassan Ally and the lively Fred Dende causing the Whitton defence lots of problems and captain Jacob Brown pulling the strings in midfield. But the Whitton defence stood strong and the occasional foray into Melford territory kept the away defence honest.

Despite a plethora of chances the Melford players couldn’t find a way through and cut a frustrated look as they left the field at half-time with the scorers untroubled.

Whitton’s fortunes were further hampered when they were forced to replace their keeper at half-time due to injury.

Despite this, the hosts took the lead against the run of play with a swift counter attack seeing DYLAN GEE lob the advancing Melford keeper to score.

This seemed to add even more belief and grit to the home side’s defending as they had a lead to protect.

Despite being a goal down the away side didn’t panic. The management looked to the bench to reinforce and subs Jake Jackson, Deklyn Roy, Alfie Parnell, Jordan Gibbs and Perry Newman all played their part.

It was the latter, PERRY NEWMAN who got the equaliser, powering home a thumping header from a fantastic Sammy Newton cross with 20 minutes to go.

It was very much attack versus defence for the last 20 minutes with the home side happy to have the very occasional counter attack but otherwise looking to slow down and frustrate the visitors (much in the same way Melford have done at times this season).

It’s fair to say they probably deserved something after such a plucky effort but it wasn’t to be as in the final seconds of the game FREDERICO DENDE picked the ball up on the edge of the box and smashed a ferocious volley over the stand-in keeper to send the away team home with all 3 points.

LONG MELFORD: David Leader, Charlie Holmes, Sam Newton, Lewis Brennan, Ross Waugh, Josh Collins, Hassan Ally, Harry Whiting-Noakes, Will Wingfield, Jacob Brown (c), Frederico Dende

Subs all used: Jordan Gibbs, Jake Jackson, Perry Newman, Alfie Parnell, Deklyn Roy

Manager Dave Hennessey had this to say at full time:

All credit to Whitton today, they worked so hard and played us the way we’ve sometimes played other teams this season. The result was a little harsh on them but it’s nice to be on the right side of a late goal for a change.

It’s a mark of the quality and confidence in our team right now that we can go on the road, not play our very best football and still come away with the win.

PHOTO CREDIT: Photo of Frederico Dende with thanks to Sean Doyle