Match Report

Haverhill Rovers v  Great Yarmouth Town .    Saturday 17th February.    Report by Martin Baxter. 

 

On a mild and damp late winters Saturday Yarmouth made the long trip to face in form Haverhill  Rovers in yet another tough look challenge.   

The Bloaters made 2 changes from last Saturday’s win against FC  Peterborough with starts given to Cantwell and Thompson and before kick off both sides received awards from the Thurlow Nunn league for being teams of the month for December and January respectively.  

 

The game started and the first chance fell to the away side when Duffield cut in from the left and tested the Rovers keeper Archer with a shot that he was equal to, however neither side really settled into the match straight-away and the first 10 minutes or so were very frantic without anyone being able to create anything of note and Halliday then took an early knock and hobbled off to be replaced by Melo.  

 

In the 15th minute Rovers skipper Weaver found himself through on goal, however Yarmouth keeper Ling came out quickly to close him down and he ended up wasting a golden opportunity putting his effort wide and this was a real let off for the Bloaters and 2 minutes later he had another guilt edged chance, unleashing a superb volley from 20 yards out which Ling somehow got a touch to, turning it onto the post and out for a corner and the away side were now under some intense pressure with the front 3 of Rovers all causing them problems with their height and physical presence in the box and Barnes and Thompson were working overtime to keep them at bay.

 

After weathering the storm for around 20 minutes or so Yarmouth then started to push forward themselves and on the half hour mark Couzens found himself through on goal with only the keeper to beat, however he took one touch too many allowing Archer to smother the ball at his feet and make an excellent stop to keep it at 0-0, however just 2 minutes later the Bloaters did take the lead when a shot at goal from Belmar on the left flank was parried out by Archer and the ball fell invitingly to Sanders who made no mistake slotting his effort into the net to make it 1-0. 1-0 then became 2-0  just 5 minutes later when Duffield seized on a mistake in the centre of the park and ran through on goal before perfectly placing his shot past the keeper and into the net.

 

Both sides then created further opportunities, but as the half-time whistle blew it was clear that unlike Rovers, the Bloaters had been more clinical in front of goal and this was the crucial difference between the 2 sides at the break.

 

Half-Time: Haverhill  Rovers.  0  Great Yarmouth Town  2.   

 

The 2nd period started with the home side on the front foot and the general opinion at half-time was that the next goal would be the determining factor in the outcome of this tight battle between these 2 in-form teams and Weaver had the first chance of the 2nd half for Rovers putting his shot across the 6 yard box and missing the target by a yard or so and then Debenham hit an effort from 15 yards out that went sailing high over the bar and then in the 50th minute Belmar cut in from the right flank before weaving his way past 2 Rovers defenders before placing his strike into the bottom left hand corner of the net to make it 3-0.

 

However Rovers responded to this latest setback within 5 minutes when a Haines shot from 10 yards out took a deflection before finding the net to make it 3-1 and this goal lifted the locals in the stands who then started to really get behind their team, however it was the Bloaters who then went on the offensive, firstly when Belmar hit a volley from 20 yards out that whistled just past the post and then Duffield went clean through on goal again, however this time he took to long to shoot and was eventually closed down by 2 Rovers defenders, however just 2 minutes later a Couzens strike from just inside the area came back off the post and this time Duffield made no mistake re-acting first and calmly planting the ball into the net to make it 4-1 and seemingly game over.    

 

With a 3 goal advantage and with another very long trip to make on Wednesday evening to Holbeach, the Yarmouth management then made 3 changes with Spooner, Barber and the returning from injury Akpan all being introduced onto the pitch and the fresh legs made an immediate impact as Barber, Akpan and Cantwell all created decent opportunities which they unfortunately were not able to convert as Rovers keeper Archer pulled off several very good saves to deny them.