Great Yarmouth Town FC v Sudbury Reserves.
Saturday 13th January 2024. Report by Martin Baxter.
On a cold and overcast winters Saturday afternoon 4th placed Yarmouth hosted 5th placed Sudbury reserves in what looked like being potentially a cracking fixture in the battle for the play off places.
The Bloaters came into this match on a 9 game unbeaten run stretching back to September and they named an unchanged side from last time out at Diss Town.
I watched Sudbury reserves recently play at Norwich CBS and they keep possession very well and are very easy on the eye to watch, however a couple of poor defensive mistakes ended up costing them that day.
The match started with the away side predictably keeping the ball well and their very impressive passing and movement was what you would expect from a young academy side, however it was the home side who had the first sight at goal in the 13th minute
when a snapshot from Sanders from 15 yards out went a yard wide and 9 minutes later a Sanders corner was met by the head of Duffield to make it 1-0 to the Bloaters.
1-0 then became 2-0 on the half hour mark when a defensive error by a Sudbury defender was seized upon by Couzens and his shot at goal from 12 yards out deflected off of Sudbury keeper Walker and into the net. It got even worse for Walker just 7 minutes later when he mis-kicked a back pass played to him straight into the path of Sanders who took full advantage by tapping the ball home to make it 3-0 and it seemed that Sudbury had clearly not learned their lessons from the Norwich CBS game.
In the 42nd minute the away side were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box and Pearce hit a superb strike into the top right corner of the net giving Yarmouth keeper Ling no chance of stopping and also giving his side a life line back into this match.
Right on half-time the Sudbury head coach received a red card and was sent to the stands for the rest of the match after something was spotted by the linesman standing close to him.
Half Time: Great Yarmouth 3 Sudbury Reserves 1.
The 2nd half started with Sudbury buoyed by their late goal in the first half and they took the game to their opponents and in the 51st minute they narrowed the arrears even further when a Pearce corner was headed home by Richardson to make it 3-2.
However Yarmouth then rallied and a high class passing move involving several players ended with a Duffield effort from close range being deflected out for a corner and it was now end to end stuff.
The next goal in this thrilling encounter would be crucial and it fell to the Bloaters on 68 minutes when Duffiled took a free kick on the edge of the right hand side of the box following a trip on Belmar and the young wing back very cleverly spotted the Sudbury keeper out of position and he placed his free kick perfectly into the bottom right hand corner of the net to make it 4-2.
Jacobs and Fenn both then came off the bench to add some fresh legs to to the Bloaters as both sides were starting to tire on a very heavy looking pitch and on 78 minutes a screamer from Barber looked like it was going in until it took a deflection and just went wide.
However Yarmouth were not over the line yet and in the 82nd minute Sudbury pulled another goal back with a Cox strike from 10 yards out and it was then a very nervy last 10 minutes for the watching faithful in this crucial fixture.
To try and make sure that the 3 points were secured Philpott and Spooner both came off the bench to bolster a tired looking rearguard and hold on they did for a massive result that may prove crucial come the end of the campaign and I would like to sing the praises of all this young squad for their performances so far this season and in particular Charlie Barber who has been simply outstanding in the centre of the park recently.
Full Time: Great Yarmouth Town. 4 Sudbury Reserves. 3. Attendance: 136.
GYTFC: Ling, Halliday, Duffiled, Wilson-Towns, Adams, Barnes, Cantwell, Barber, Couzens, Sanders, Belmar. Subs: Thompson, Spooner, Jacobs, Philpott, Fenn.
Joint man of the match: Louie Duffiled and Charlie Barber.
