Whittlesey Athletic v Great Yarmouth Town.
Saturday 30th March 2024. Report by Martin Baxter.
Yarmouth made the long trip deep into the Cambridgeshire fenland’s to face Whittlesey Athletic who currently sit in 16th position in the Thurlow Nunn league.
However Athletic seem to raise their game when they are at home against the top sides as Framlingham Town found out when they came away with a only a point in a 1-1 draw at this ground back in January.
The Bloaters made only 2 changes from last time out against Needham Market with Barnes coming back after a serving a suspension and Cantwell replaced Barber in central midfield, who was named amongst the substitutes.
The match started brightly with both teams looking to get off to a positive start and the home side were playing the ball over the top in a direct style looking for their very tall number 9 Hibbins and he was clearly going to be a real threat at set pieces.
The first opportunity of the match fell to Yarmouth in the 17th minute when a Couzens strike from 15 yards out went 2 foot wide of the target and 10 minutes later Cantwell tried his luck from 20 yards out but his effort went well wide.
I covered this match last season and on that day Athletics’s number 10 De Sousa was the difference between the 2 sides with a man of the match performance capped off by scoring the winning goal, and on the half hour mark he put in an exquisite pass to find Hibbins at the back post and his volley from inside the 6 yard box went just over the bar for a massive let off for the Bloaters and just 1 minute later they came even closer to scoring when De Sousa played in Jenkins who’s shot missed by a matter of inches.
The home side then created several more decent chances to take the lead with De Sousa at the heart of everything for them and the Bloaters were really having to roll up their sleeves and battle to keep this game at 0-0.
Yarmouth were really struggling to create any attacking opportunities themselves with Couzens looking isolated up front on his own, however in the 40th minute and against the run of play a Sanders strike from 20 yards out rattled against the post before rebounding out to Duffled who reacted superbly to volley the ball into the net to make it 1-0 to the away side,
The referre blew the half-time whistle and Athletic must have been walking off the pitch wondering how they could be 1-0 down after having most of the goalscoring chances in the first 45 minutes, however if you don’t take them then you can always pay the price, which is eaxctly what happend here!
Half Time: Whittlesey Athletic 0 Great Yarmouth Town 1.
The 2nd period started with Sanders testing the Athletic keeper Dunmore with a long range shot which he was equal too and then Belmar had a try with a strike that once again was saved by Dunmore and then in the 53rd minute from an Athletic corner the ball was headed goalwards by Higgs and was adjudged to have crossed the line before being headed clear by a Yarmouth defender at the near post to level this match at 1-1.
On the hour mark Adams replaced Barnes who was already on a yellow card and had then recieved a final warning by the ref after a late tackle and Barber came on for Wilson-Towns as Yarmouth needed to be more creative in the middle of the park as they were getting no joy in the wide areas and this looked like being a positive change and then 10 minutes later both Fenn and Jacobs also came on to add some fresh legs and energy to the side.
In the 75th minute Couzens had a shot from a very tight angle close to the right hand touchline that whizzed across the goal line before going out for a goal kick, however for once the Yarmouth substitutions had little impact and they had to finish the last 5 minutes with only 10 men as Fenn was sin binned for dissent following an appeal for a late penalty.
This game then finished in a 1-1 draw which on reflection was a fair result and although the Bloaters were underpar on the day against a very good Whittlesey side it just proves how well this squad have done to have been beaten in the league only once since September and they now need only 3 points to make sure of a top 2 finish and home advantage in the play-offs and 13 points from 5 matches to win the league title.
Full Time: Whittlesey Athletic 1. Great Yarmouth Town 1
GYTFC: Ling, Halliday, Philpott, Wilson-Towns, Thompson, Barnes, Duffield, Cantwell, Couzens, Sanders, Belmar. Subs: Adams, Jacobs, Barber, Fenn.
Joint Man of the Match: George Couzens and Jones De Souza. (Whittlesey)
