Caister Reserves v Great Yarmouth Town Reserves.
Saturday 6th January 2024. Report by Martin Baxter.
As the 1st team did not have a game, the spotlight fell onto the Bloaters reserves local derby with Caister FC reserves at a cold and wet Allendale Road ground.
Yarmouth had the luxury of fielding 3 first team squad players in their line up, with Fenn, Perry and Jacobs all in the starting eleven, along with the highly rated young winger Mansfield.
The match started in frantic typical local derby fashion and the first chance fell to Jacobs who tested the Caister keeper Piggin with a tame effort from 15 yards out that did not really trouble him, however already the extra pace and fitness levels of both Jacobs and Fenn really stood out as the away side started to take control of the midfield area and in the 20th minute Fenn placed his shot superbly from 20 yards out into the bottom left hand corner of the net to make it 1-0.
Both sides then had a couple of half chances, however on the half hour mark Jacobs played a perfectly timed through ball to Fenn, who totally outpaced the Caister defenders before clinically placing his effort into the net from 10 yards out to make it 2-0.
The away side finished the first half playing some very good possession football, without being able to create another clear cut opportunity.
Half Time: Caiser FC Reserves 0 Great Yarmouth Reserves 2
The 2nd period started slowly, however ex Bloater Trenerey tested Yarmouth keeper Turner with a long range shot that went wide in the 50th minute and 5 minutes later Mansfield found himself through on goal after a superb individual run and his shot was parried onto the post by keeper Piggin and went out for a corner.
However the Bloaters made it 3-0 on the hour mark when substitute Woodhouse’s strike from 10 yards out went under the keeper and into the goal and 10 minutes later another substitute Soares made it 4-0 with a simple tap in following excellent build up play and.
4-0 became 5-0 in the 85th minute when yet another substitute Ashby scored from close range. This must be the first time in living memory that three second half substitutes have all got on the score sheet for any Bloaters team!
In injury time Smith was brought down by a tackle in the box and he stepped up himself to take the resulting penalty, sending the keeper the wrong way to make it 6-0, however with the last action of the match Caister winger Oulamo scored the best goal of the day with a superb curling strike from 20 yards out to give the watching local fans something to cheer about.
Full Time: Caister Reserves 1 Great Yarmouth Town Reserves 6
GYTFC: Turner, Evans, Stanley, Melo, Orme, Moyse, Mansfield, Perry, Smith, Jacobs, Fenn. Subs: Ashby, Soares, Woodhouse.
Man of the Match: Jesse Fenn.
