March Town 1 – 3 Felixstowe 1st

NE14 East Men’s League - Division 1 - Saturday 10^th December 2011

Felixstowe made it 6 games unbeaten and 3 wins on the bounce with an accomplished performance against March Town. Felixstowe went into the game knowing that a victory would see them leap-frog March, who had previously snatched a win from under Felixstowe’s noses with two late goals in the opening game of the season.

Felixstowe were without Ben Knowles and Jake Steward, both of whom unable to travel to the match, and were further hampered as illness meant Paul Farthing was a little jaded before the match. There was some doubt as to whether the fixture would go ahead as one side of the pitch was frozen solid, but not deemed to affect safety. Coach Duncan Rudge set up the team to try and attack with pace, and Felixstowe did not disappoint. The first 20 minutes was one-way traffic, with Leney and Harris causing problems for the March defence, and it wasn’t long before the pressure told. After a wave of attacks, skipper Woodhouse cleverly lifted the ball through to Entwistle, only for a defender to block the ball illegally.

The defender was sent to the sin-bin, and Woodhouse dispatched the resulting penalty corner to continue his goal-scoring run. Felixstowe continued to dominate, with Offord in particular snuffing out and counter-attacks from March. The final action of the half saw Woodhouse sending another penalty corner in the bottom corner to make it 2-0.

The second half saw March pushing much higher up the pitch, and trying to make more in-roads into Felixstowe’s D. However, the back 4 of Healey, Walker (J), Kelcher and Brooke-Rowland didn’t have too much trouble keeping tabs on the March forwards. However, a lapse when Leney gave the ball away in his own 25, and some sloppy marking in the D saw a March player skilfully reverse-stick an effort into the top-corner, past Fothergill.

Earlier in the season, this set-back might have made Felixstowe wobble but in the last few weeks the Felixstowe players have shown they can hold their nerve. An early ball from Walker (M) picked out Leney, who drew the defender before expertly slipping to Entiwstle. His chance seemed to have gone when the March goalkeeper came out quickly and knocked him off balance, but instead of going down to take the penalty, Entiwistle spun and unleashed a ferocious shot mid-way up the goal from the tightest of angle, a goal which said as much about Entiwistle’s frustration at his recent barren patch as it did about his skill to finish so brilliantly.

Felixstowe now go into the winter-break looking up the table with relish rather than over their shoulder with fear.