Walsham Le Willows vs Long Melford

Report

A last minute winner from the home side denied Long Melford a point at the death.

Melford made the trip to Walsham looking to get back to winning ways after last week’s defeat to league leaders Thetford Town.

Three changes for the visitors saw Charlie Holmes, Frederico Dende and Ryan Gibbs come into the starting line-up, Deklyn Roy missing out through injury with Hassan Ally and Will Wingfield starting on the bench.

It was the home side who started brightest with former Melford forward Jack Brame flashing a header wide from a corner.

The visitors huffed and puffed but lacked cohesion and never really got out of second gear.

Walsham had a couple of half chances but the impressive David Leader made sure they were kept at bay.

Neither team really created very much though and it was all square at the half-time whistle.

After the break it was a completely different Melford side. Early chances for Gibbs and Ben Judge were spurned but the visitors were growing with confidence and dealing with the occasional foray from Walsham quite comfortably.

In the 65th minute the aforementioned Brame was given a straight red card following a verbal altercation with the referee and the home side were down to 10 men.

Melford made a couple of changes and it was substitute Ally who had the chance of the game, rounding the home keeper and choosing to square the ball when the net lay empty.

Melford continued to threaten and looked the likeliest of scorers as Walsham looked to hold on for a valuable point, that was until the very final minute when they broke and an excellent goal line clearance from Sam Newton denied them.

From the resultant corner Melford went to sleep and after initially looking to keep the ball in the corner and run down the clock a deep cross was lobbed into the penalty box, Leader failed to claim and substitute Olly Mackenzie smashed home.

There was barely enough time for the restart and a brave, battling performance from Walsham saw them claim all three points.

A tough one to take for the visitors but a timely reminder that you’ve got to convert your chances in games like this or else risk getting punished.

Haverhill Rovers are the visitors to Stoneylands next Saturday as Melford look to respond to back-to-back defeats following a 5 game unbeaten run.

LONG MELFORD: Leader, Holmes, Newton, Jackson, Waugh, Collins, Dende, Whiting-Noakes, R. Gibbs, Brown, Judge

Subs (all used) – J. Gibbs, Ally, Humphreys, Brennan, Wingfield