Great Yarmouth Town v Harwich and Parkeston.
Saturday 3rd December 2022. Report by Martin Baxter.
On a very cold early December day out of form Yarmouth played hosts to inform Harwich and Parkeston in what looked like being another very tough game for the Bloaters.
Harwich are one of the sides challenging for the play off’s this season and currently they sit in 8th position and were looking to push closer to the top 6 with a win.
Yarmouth made 5 changes from their encouraging mid-week performance against Framlingham with Perry, Trennery, Cantwell, C. Smith and Fenn all getting starts.
The match started slowly with both sides looking out of sorts and the first 25 minutes was non eventful, however on the half-hour mark a cross from the left by Geen curved in and rattled the upright and a minute later Boreham-Knight had a free header from close range which went straight into the arms of Lane in the Yarmouth goal.
However 2 minutes later Lane was adjudged to have fouled the same player in the box after a coming together between them and the ref pointed to the spot and booked the keeper and Eades stepped up to convert the penalty and the Shrimpers went 1-0- up.
In the 42nd minute Yarmouth had their first decent opportunity when Smith had a header from a right wing cross that he put just wide of the post, however just before half time Harwich scored a 2nd goal when Geen tapped home from close range following a pinpoint cross from the left and right on half time Heath could have made in 3-0 but was foiled by a decent stop from Lane.
Half time: Great Yarmouth Town 0 Harwich and Parkeston 2.
The first 15 minutes of the 2nd half was once again very poor with Yarmouth not being able to gain any kind of momentum in the match and on the hour mark Mayhew went on a mazy run at goal beating 2 defenders and his effort from 10 yards out was well stopped by Lane and on 65 minutes Yarmouth introduced Adams and Jacobs to try and create some sparkle into the home side.
In the 70th minute Adams put in a cross for Smith who put his effort from 25 yards out high over the upright and 10 minutes later Barnes had a strike from a similar distance that also went wide.
The only real positive on the day for Yarmouth came in the 83rd minute when Beeson came on for his first taste of football for several months after a long term injury and just before the final whistle Lane made another very good save turning the ball over the bar to deny Mayhew adding a third goal for the visitors and the ref then blew the whistle for the end of this very poor match.
Yarmouth have now lost 6 league games in a row and have only scored 1 goal in that period and when it came to awarding man of the match it reminded me of my West Ham supporting days when if West Ham were really poor the club would be too afraid to announce a man of the match for the home side as the fans would shout abuse and boo the decision, whoever the player might be.
Full Time: Great Yarmouth Town 0 Harwich and Parkeston 2. Attendance: 73.
GYTFC Line up: Lane, Halliday, Duffield, Barnes, Perry, Willetts, Trennary, Cantwell, C. Smith, Soares, Fenn. Subs: Adams, Beeson, Jacobs.
Man of the match: Matthew Geen. (Harwich and Parkeston)
