New formation builds to head of steam!

Felixstowe 1st x Harleston 2nds

Felixstowe Men’s 1st XI brought their pre-season matches to a close with a trip to Harleston Magpies. Following a tough encounter against local rivals IES the previous Tuesday, coach Duncan Rudge and Alex Woodhouse applied a number of changes to the formation to try and bolster Felixstowe’s attacking play. Woodhouse himself moved to right midfield, releasing Phil Leney to partner last year’s Skipper Jack Entwistle up front, with Paul Farthing playing as support striker.

Harleston, playing one division higher than Felixstowe, started briskly, moving the ball quickly through midfield and frequently into Felixstowe’s final third. However, as last season, the defence were supremely organised and kept any forward movement away from Fothergill’s “D”. It took Felixstowe a few minutes to settle to the new formation, but slowly they started to build a head of steam and push Harleston further back. Time and again the Felixstowe midfield found Entwistle and Leney with quick passing, and with Farthing further up the pitch, Felixstowe were able to build some decent attacks. The most startling change was that Felixstowe won many more short corners than they were able to in previous matches – and, following some decent work from Farthing, Woodhouse converted his third short corner for Felixstowe to take a deserved lead.

Felixstowe went into the break 1-0 up, and brought on Marly Jones, Joe Leckie and Harry Brooke-Rowland. Brooke-Rowland took a few minutes to settle into the pace of the game, but got better and better throughout. However, Harleston worked their way back into the game, and gained a deserved equaliser early in the second half. Felixstowe then had a purple patch, with Leney now getting more and more success with his attacks, and after Entwistle fluffed his lines in front of goal, Leney broke away to strike cleanly past the Harleston keeper. Decent stuff now, and Felixstowe looked the better team against their Norfolk opponents. Brooke-Rowland snuffed out a Harleston attack, and released Leney who produced a carbon-copy of his first goal for Felixstowe to extend its lead to 3-1 – Brooke-Rowland punching the air in delight at his contribution to the goal.

Felixstowe looked comfortable for most of the game, although will take warning from the fact that they let their guard slip twice towards the end of the match, and both times were punished as Harleston drew level. Felixstowe were a little disappointed that they had let the game drift away right at the end, but will surely be buoyed by a much more balanced performance than in previous weeks.

This Saturday (24th September, 12 noon) sees Felixstowe take on March Town at Orwell High School, hoping to avenge a bad-tempered match in 2009/10 season where Felixstowe lost 2-1 to a deserving March team, and Kelcher was dismissed.