The stats will say that Dereham enjoyed the better possession, the territorial advantage and had more shots on goal than us as hosts. What stats can’t portray or indeed even this very report, is just how much our young side put into this game to frustrate and ultimately deny a very good visiting team. With lessons learnt from that eight goal defeat, manager Weavers decided that despite playing at home we would play with only one up top and flood the middle of the park to deny them space with a pressing game once they were in our half, leaving them with as much possession as they liked in their defensive areas with the idea of hitting Dereham on the counter-attack using the pace of our forward and wider players.

Whilst not pretty at all, the plan worked a treat and tremendous praise should be given to the entire team for sticking together, working as hard as they did and in the end getting a bit of luck to become the first team to humble our visitors.

Having said all that, Woodbridge made a bright start to the game and probably had our best period of the game in those opening 20 minutes with a couple of good flowing moves coming close but we had taken the lead after 10 minutes when from a set-piece Barton timed his run perfectly to head home unchallenged into the bottom corner. It was a goal that rewarded a good individual display at the heart of our defence who were able to deal quite comfortably with the number of balls that were put into channels for the Dereham attackers to run onto. Whether it be a case that Dereham have found that route to be effective for them this season or that they found it tough to run through a packed middle of the park, and decided to go down this route, it was a ploy that ultimately we wised up to and throughout the game the vast number of efforts on our goal came from outside of the box which Wilson dealt with with some aplomb. As the game wore, the visitors desperation and frustration increased with one or two robust challenges being made on our young guns who had quite frankly proved very annoying by now and increasing desperate calls for a penalty every now and again from the opposing bench. Even when they threw 3 people up top in the last 10 minutes, it only actually helped us when we broke as we were able to keep the ball a little better up top with one less defender. Lady luck was ultimately with us when Dereham got a free-kick right on the edge of our box in the last minutes which their winger clipped delightfully into the top corner of the net but the referee had already blown to caution our charger who was so close to the ball at the time of taking it, they could well have had a conversation. To rub salt into the wounds the subsequent re-take ironically hit the wall and was gleefully kicked as far upfield as possible to great amusement within the Woodbridge ranks.

It would be wrong to single out any individual at the end of the day for what was a backs to the wall team display with everyone including the subs putting in a shift. The real test of course will be to see the same commitment next week and in future ones too!!


Team: Wilson, Fulker, Baalham, Clouting, Barton, Hammond, Seaman, Smith (Acland), Heathcote (Smy), Nicklin (Baldry), Churchill.