Great Yarmouth Town v Needham Market under 23’s.
Saturday 4th September 2022. Report by Martin Baxter.
On a very warm late summer Saturday afternoon at the Wellesley Yarmouth had a bottom basement clash against fellow struggler’s Needham Market Under 23’s, with both sides desperate to get their first win of the season.
Yarmouth gave a debut up front to new signing Carter Trenery who came in for the unavailable Ryan Beeson and were buoyed by their decent away draw at Parsons Drove the previous Saturday.
In only the 2nd minute the Bloaters got off to the perfect start when a Cantwell free kick firstly ping balled around the box and then finally came off the shin of Vincent to put the home side 1-0 up.
This early strike seemed to settle Yarmouth and they started playing the ball wide down the flanks and were putting in crosses at every opportunity which were troubling the visitors rearguard and in the 11th minute from one of these crosses, Fenn’s deflected effort just went wide of of the right hand post.
The home side then had 2 further chances to increase their lead with efforts from firstly Soares and then McQueen, however the visitors keeper Robinson made 2 decent stops to keep his side in the match.
The Bloaters were not to be denied a 2nd goal for very long however, as in the 26th minute new boy Trenery was upended in the box and skipper Cantwell converted the spot kick to give Yarmouth an important 2 goal cushion.
Barely 2 minutes later it was almost 3-0 when a Couzens strike was once again well saved by the Needham Market keeper and from the subsequent corner that followed McQueen headed just over the bar.
On 35 minutes Trenery almost capped off the perfect debut when he was put clean through and with only the keeper to beat, his effort was once again blocked by Robinson, who was by far the best player on the pitch for Needham Market.
However 5 minutes later that elusive 3rd goal finally arrived when Cantwell played a perfectly timed pass through to McQueen who coolly slotted past the keeper.
Then in the 43rd minute following superb counter attacking football by Yarmouth a shot from Halliday was stopped by Robinson, only for the rebound to fall to McQueen for a simple tap in to make the score 4-0.
Then, right on half time that man McQueen completed his hat trick when once again he was put through by the very impressive Cantwell and slid his effort past the keeper.
Half-time: Great Yarmouth Town 5 Needham Market under 23’s 0.
The 2nd period started slowly as both sides were feeling the heat in the very hot conditions and as is often the case once a side is home and dry after 45 minutes in the 2nd half it can be a little difficult to create that same momentum once again and the first chance did not come until the 60th minute when man of the match McQueen had a volley that went wide of the goal.
Yarmouth then made some changes with Ford replacing Vincent and Sanders coming on for Trenery who had worked his socks off in an impressive first game in a Bloaters shirt following his move from Caister FC.
The substitutions worked as in the 80th minute Sanders won the ball on the right and sent in a perfect low cross for Couzens to fire home from close range to make it a 6-0 routing.
In the 85th minute Halliday (who had his best match of the season so far) was replaced by Melo.
The perfect day for Yarmouth was slightly tarnished in stoppage time when after a goal keeping error Vance scored to prevent the home side keeping their first clean sheet of the season.
Full Time: Great Yarmouth Town. 6. Needham Market Under 23’s 1. Attendance: 103.
Great Yarmouth Town: Lane, Halliday, Philpott, Vincent, Perry, Soares, Mc Queen, Cantwell, Trenery, Couzens, Fenn. Subs: Melo, Sanders, Ford. Duffield, Riches.
Man of the match: Brad McQueen.
