Leiston Under 23’s v Great Yarmouth Town. Saturday 11th November 2023. Report by Martin Baxter
On a bright but chilly early winters day the Bloaters made the relatively short journey to the Victory Road Stadium to face Leiston Under 23’s.
The Blues currently sit only one place off the bottom, however as they showed when they visited the Wellesley back in August and came away with a well earned point, they can be a very difficult side to beat.
Yarmouth made 2 changes from last time out at Framlingham with Spooner and Duffield both making starts with Philpott unavailable and Fenn was named amongst the substitutes.
When Yarmouth last visited this ground back in April there was a minutes silence held before kick off to pay respects to Bloaters former club President Arthur Fisk, who very sadly had passed away a few days earlier and this time their was a 2 minutes silence once again held before this match to pay respects for Armistice day.
The game kicked off and the first chance fell to the home in the 3rd minute when a shot from Wilson was comfortably dealt with my Ling in the Yarmouth goal and just 2 minutes later a Belmar cross from the left found Duffiled unmarked in the box and he tapped the ball home from close range to put the away side 1-0 up.
Yarmouth then began to take control of this encounter and in the 20th minute Couzens had a shot at goal from 10 yards that was superbly cleared off of the line by a Leiston defender and 7 minutes later Sanders had a header go narrowly wide following a Duffiled cross into the danger zone.
Leiston were playing some really decent football, however as is often the case with these young under 23 sides there was a lack of end product in the final third, and Ling in the Yarmouth goal was rarely called into action and in the 37th minute another effort was cleared off of the line by blues defender Clark Jackson to deny Spooner a certain goal and the ball was put out for a corner, and from this corner taken by Belmar, Duffield rose highest to head the ball home to make it 2-0.
Belmar was switching from left side to right on a regular basis and was causing havoc down both flanks and just before half time from another corner taken this time taken by Sanders, Duffield once again headed the ball into the net to complete his first half hat trick.
Half Time: Leiston Under 23’s 0. Great Yarmouth Town 3.
The 2nd period began with Yarmouth once again on the front foot and in the 46th minute Duffileld cut in from the left and unleashed an effort that went just wide of the right hand post, however a minute later he did even better when going clean through on goal and placing the ball perfectly into the bottom left hand corner of the net to to make it 4-0 and effectively game over.
On the hour mark Cantwell came on for Wilson-Towns and 2 minutes later a cross into the 6 yard box by Duffiled was met on the volley by Couzens who somehow managed to put his effort over the bar and he was having one of those days in front of goal and he was replaced by “Amber Wave” favourite Fenn with 20 minutes remaining and 5 minutes later French came on for Barber.
In the 75th minute another superb surge down the left hand side from Belmar was followed by a perfectly weighted cross which was met at the far post by Duffiled who slotted home to make it an emphatic 5-0 and a 5* day for the young winger!
In the 80th minute a Belmar corner was met with a bullet header from Adams to make it 6-0, however a vital clean sheet was not possible as Leiston were awarded a penalty for a trip in the box deep into injury time, which was converted by Atkin to make the final score 6-1.
This win lifted Yarmouth up into 4th place and with 3 games in hand on leaders Holland, who they meet in 2 weeks time.
Full Time: Leiston Under 23’s 1 Great Yarmouth Town 6. Attendance: 52.
GYTFC: Ling, Halliday, Spooner, Wilson-Towns, Barnes, Adams, Duffield, Barber, Couzens, Sanders, Belmar. Subs: French, Cantwell, Fenn.
Man of the match: Louie Duffield.
