Diss Town v Great Yarmouth Town.
Monday 26th December 2022. Report by Martin Baxter.
On a bright and sunny boxing day morning Yarmouth made the relatively short journey to face old foes Diss Town in an early festive kick off.
This is the first time either side have played in over 3 weeks owing to the recent postponements caused by a long spell of freezing conditions and the pitch for this match looked very heavy and uneven in places.
Both the Bloaters and the Tangerines had been on a poor run of results lately and both sides were looking over their shoulders at the relegation places and this made sure that the 3 points up for grabs in this match would be crucial.
Yarmouth made 4 changes from the last game against Harwich, with Philpott, Melo and Jacobs all returning and a debut was given to James Averies.
The match started and in the first 5 minutes ex Bloater Baker put a header over the bar from a free kick and just a minute later new boy Averies put through a perfectly timed pass for Connor Smith to run onto and he clinically slotted home from 5 yards out to put Yarmouth 1-0 up, and after having been low on confidence in recent games this early goal gave every Bloater on the pitch and also watching in the stands a massive and much needed lift.
The away side were playing with 3 across the back, which allowed both Halliday and Duffield to attack both flanks and give them some much needed width and in the 10th minute Duffield after a great run put in a dangerous low cross which no-one was able to get on the end of and the ball was cleared away for a corner. There then followed a passage of play where both sides became bogged down in a midfield battle with several strong tackles flying in.
In the 32nd minute Jones put in an excellent cross from the right which Baker just missed connecting with and 2 minutes later they had another opportunity to draw level when Cawcutt had a flick at goal from close range, however Lane made a superb reflex save to deny him and Diss were now starting to gather some momentum in search of an equaliser.
In the 37th minute the very experienced Matthew Blake put a header from a corner just over the bar, however Yarmouth managed to go in at half-time with a clean sheet and an all important slender lead.
Half time: Diss Town 0 Great Yarmouth Town 1.
The 2nd half started and the referee who in the first half had let the game flow now started to blow up at every opportunity and as this was to Yarmouth’s advantage being 1-0 up, several of the Diss players became frustrated and several yellow cards were dished out to both sides and the match then became all about on the ball and off the ball incidents and there was now no actual flow to this game, however credit to the Bloaters rearguard who were both solid and organised at the back.
In the 65th minute goalscorer Smith was replaced by another player making his debut in Dylan Hacon and 5 minutes later Diss substitute Barber was shown a straight red card for a heavy challenge on keeper Lane, which then sparked off a lot of pushing and shoving from both sets of players and resulted in Barnes receiving a yellow card.
The bad tempers overspilled again on 80 minutes when ex Bloaters skipper Urry received a 2nd yellow for dissent after a free kick was awarded against him and the Tangerines were now down to 9 men for the remainder of this encounter and on 83 minutes Jacobs and Willetts were replaced with Soares and Adams to give Yarmouth some fresh legs on a very heavy playing surface.
New boy Averies had the chance to make it a perfect debut on 87 minutes when he went clean through on goal but failed to take his opportunity and was then replaced by Fenn.
The final whistle then went and this was a crucial win and in fact a double for Yarmouth against one of the teams in and around them and they will now be looking to complete another double against Swaffham Town and push further up the table
on Monday 2nd January, kick off 3.00 pm.
Full time: Diss Town 0 Great Yarmouth Town 1. Attendance: 158.
GYTFC Line up: Lane, Halliday,Duffield, Barnes, Philipott, Melo, Jacobs, Willetts, Smith, Perry, Averies. Subs: Hacon, Soares, Fenn, Adams, Evans.
Man of the match: Louis Duffield.
