Norwich CBS v Great Yarmouth Town.
Tuesday 12th September 2023. Report by Martin Baxter.
On a very wet evening Yarmouth made the short journey to the FDC in Norwich for the 2nd time in a month to face struggling Norwich CBS who were still looking for their first win of the season.
The Bloaters won the previous encounter in August 4-2 in the league cup and were therefore looking for another victory to push them up into the play off places.
They made only one change from Saturday’s narrow defeat to Holland with Adams coming into a re-shuffled defence to replace Halliday.
The game started and the Bloaters came out of the blocks flying and within the first 2 minutes both Fenn and Barber tested the CBS keeper with strikes at goal, with both efforts going narrowly wide and 3 minutes later from their first attack CBS took the lead when Musasa was not closed down allowing him time and space to unleash a perfectly placed shot from 15 yards out into the bottom left hand corner to make it 1-0 to the home side.
This goal seemed to lift CBS and they started moving the ball around really well and looked anything but a side struggling at the bottom of the league and this forced the Bloaters to step up a gear and on 19 minutes Barber beat a couple of players before squaring the ball to Couzens whose shot went just wide of the right hand post. The equalizer after several more decent chances were not taken finally came in the 35th minute when Akpan put in a perfectly weighted pass to Fenn who struck home a superb volley from 20 yards out that gave the keeper no chance of stopping and the pressure Yarmouth had been putting on their opponents finally paid off .
However CBS to their credit then rallied and their centre forward hit the post with a great effort from 15 yards out in the 40th minute and this was now end to end stuff, with both sides playing really attractive and attacking football and the watching spectators that had braved the weather were certainly getting their money’s worth. In the 44th minute Fenn was in possession of the ball just over the half-way line when he looked up to see that the CBS keeper was some way off of his line and he attempted an audacious Beckham style lob from fully 40 yards out which sailed over the keepers head and under the bar to sensationally put Yarmouth 2-1 up on the night.
In injury time Musasa had a free kick for the home side that went very close to making it 2-2, however the Bloaters went in at the break with a 2-1 advantage.
Half Time: Norwich CBS 1 Great Yarmouth Town 2.
The 2nd period started with the home side on the front foot and Yarmouth were looking a little ragged and they gave away a couple of needless corners inviting on more pressure, but somehow they did not get punished and in the 48th minute Akpan went on a superb solo run which ended with him putting in a dangerous cross which went right across the 6 yard box with no-one in a Bloaters shirt being able to get on the end of, and 7 minutes later Sanders struck a perfect volley from 15 yards out that soared past the keeper and into the net to make it 3-1 and give his side that all important 2 goal cushion.
In the 62nd minute Musasa blasted a free kick from just outside the area which Lane did well to turn over the bar for a corner and 4 minutes late Perry came on replacing Wilson-Towns and it was good to see the young midfielder back from injury, and a minute later Philpott had a chance to make it 4-1, but put his header wide from a corner when in a very good position.
Yarmouth then made more changes with Belmar, Cork and Stephenson all coming on to give them some fresh legs after 2 tough games in the matter of 3 days and despite creating a couple of half chances CBS never really looked like getting back into this match and Yarmouth came away with another 3 well earned points on the road to take them up to 5th place in the table and into the play-off places and they now have accumulated as many points already this season as they had at Christmas time last season.
Full Time: Norwich CBS 1 Great Yarmouth Town 3.
GYTFC: Lane, French, Spooner, Wilson-Towns, Philpott, Adams, Akpan, Barber, Couzens, Sanders, Fenn. Subs: Perry, Stephenson, Cork, Belmar.
Joint man of the match: Manny Akpan and Jesse Fenn.
