Harwich & Parkeston v Great Yarmouth Town.
Saturday 18th February 2023. Report by Martin Baxter.
On a very mild and overcast Saturday Yarmouth made the trip down the east coast to face old foes Harwich and Parkeston in what looked like being yet another very difficult match for the Bloaters.
The Shrimpers sat in 3rd place in the league coming into this game and were only 4 points off of top spot and are in with a very decent shout of automatic promotion to the Thurlow Nunn premier league.
There was a debut for Yarmouth with youngster Mitchell Belmar hitting the field for the 1st team.
The game started and the first opportunity fell to the away side in the 5th minute when Couzens crossed from the right to find new boy Belmar who’s effort at goal was deflected away for a corner and Yarmouth were looking very positive with Jacobs at the heart of everything in the midfield area and 2 minutes later the ball fell perfectly to Couzens 10 yards out, however he failed to connect properly with his shot and the chance went begging.
The home side started slowly and they did not really create anything of note until the 21st minute when Mayhew hit a speculative shot from 15 yards out that was comfortably dealt with by Lane in the Yarmouth goal.
The games defining moment came on the half hour mark when Yarmouth keeper Lane was adjudged to have brought down Harwich striker Boreham-Knight on the edge of the box and as there were no defenders covering he was shown a straight red card by the referee after he consulted with his linesman and defender Regan Perry was forced to put on the gloves and go in goal for the remaining hour or so of this match.
Perry was called into action 5 minutes later making a superb reflex save at point blank range from Boreham-Knight and the away side were now under the cosh and were having to defend deep in their own half to keep their opponents at bay.
The breakthrough came just before half time when a cross from the right from Smith went over the heads of everyone including the outstretched arms of Perry and into the top left hand net to put the Shrimpers 1-0 up.
Half Time: Harwich and Parkeston 1 Great Yarmouth Town 0.
The 2nd period started and several of the home faithful informed me during the break that Harwich were normally a much better side in the 2nd half of matches, so I therefore feared the worst for this young Bloaters side playing with a a makeshift keeper and being reduced to 10 men.
However to their credit they battled hard and stayed in the match and it was the away side who actually had the first opportunity of the 2nd period when impressive new boy Belmar tested the keeper with a shot from 5 yards out in the 52nd minute, and 5 minutes later Perry turned a long range effort over the bar from Mayhew for a corner and on the hour mark Perry again made another decent save, this time at his near post from a close range effort from Archie Corner.
The Shrimpers were pumping high balls into the box at every opportunity after their earlier success with their first half goal, however this game was finally put to bed in the 74th minute with a superbly taken free kick from 25 yards out from Kioussis which gave makeshift keeper Perry no chance of stopping as it hit the top left corner of the net.
Yarmouth then made late changes with Halliday being replaced by Evans and Sacramento coming on for Barnden as the 10 men were starting to understandably tire after putting in a very hard shift against a high quality Harwich side.
Full Time: Harwich and Parkeston 2. Great Yarmouth Town 0. Attendance: 202.
GYTFC: Lane, Perry, Duffield, Philpott, Barnes, Barnden, Halliday, Melo, Couzens, Jacobs, Belmar. Subs: Carter, Sacramento, Periela, Troy.
Man of the match: Gareth Heath. (Harwich and Parkeston)
Yarmouth Man of the match: Regan Perry
