Cornard United V Great Yarmouth Town.
Saturday 4th March 2023. Report by Martin Baxter.
On a dull and overcast afternoon Yarmouth made the long trip to the Suffolk/Essex border to face play-off chasing Cornard United in what looked once again like being a very difficult match for this young Bloaters side.
The Ards included in their line up their prolific goalscorer Scott Sloots who has already netted 32 times this season and is surely one of the top strikers in the league, and Yarmouth made 3 changes from last time out at Harwich and Parkeston with Barnes, Smith and Beeson all getting starts.
Kingsley Barnes came in for Reuben Lane who was sitting out a one match ban and it was a superb gesture from the young keeper to still travel with the squad and go through the warm up routines with Barnes before kick off.
The game began and Yarmouth won 2 early corners in succession in which they failed to take any real advantage of and the first strike at goal came from the home side in the 5th minute when Nasso put his effort wide of the left hand post and 6 minutes later Smith tested the Cornard keeper with a long range effort which he dealt with comfortably and the match was at this point fairly even.
On 22 minutes Yarmouth won a free kick in a promising position and the ball was flighted into the box by Couzens onto the head of Philpott who headed wide when he should really have done much better and 3 minutes later they were punished for this miss when following a defensive error Lindoe was given time and space to superbly curl his effort firstly against the woodwork and then into the net to put the home side 1-0 up.
Yarmouth responded positively 3 minutes later when a Couzens corner went right across the box just missing the outstretched foot of Beeson right in front of the goal.
In the 42nd minute danger man Sloots blasted over from close range to keep the score at 1-0 going into the half-time break.
Half time: Cornard United 1 Great Yarmouth Town 0.
The 2nd period started and after a very cagey first 10 minutes Sloots went clean through on goal in the 57th minute and hit his shot against the post and he then had a 2nd bite at the cherry from the re-bound and this time blasted his volley over the bar and somehow managed to miss a golden opportunity to give his side a 2 goal cushion.
In the 65th minute Duffield had a half chance from a tight angle on the left that missed the target, however the Bloaters were not showing enough creativity in the final third of the pitch and were being out fought in the centre of the park.
On 70 minutes Yarmouth keeper Barnes was called into action when he made an excellent save 5 yards out to stop a blistering volley from Walsh hitting the back of the net and Cornard looked to be in control of this match going into the final period.
5 minutes later that man Sloots once again missed the target with a header from point blank range and he just seemed to be having one of those days in front of goal, and late on the Bloaters made a couple of changes bringing on Perry and Trennery.
The ref then blew the whistle for full time and Yarmouth have now not won a game since the 2nd of January, over 2 months ago and their next 3 matches against Leiston, Haverhill and Parsons Drove the teams in and around them in the relegation scrap will surely define their season.
Full Time: Cornard United 1 Great Yarmouth Town 0.
GYTFC: K. Barnes,Halliday, Duffield, C.Barnes, Philpott, Beeson, Melo, Couzens, Smith, Jacobs, Belmar. Subs: Perry, Trennery.
Man of the Match: Billy Nasso. (Cornard United)
Yarmouth Man of the Match: Cameron Barnes.
