A depleted AFC Sudbury Reserves assembled at The Meadow for the Chell Trophy Group match v Walsham -Le – Willows. This was another of these ’6 pointers’ as AFC knocked Walsham out of The Suffolk Senior Reserve Cup in the Semi-Finals last season.

Things went wrong from the offset when Stepney Thurgood was unluckily booked for a foul early as referee Mr Case imposed his authority on the game – he went onto to book two Walsham players for foul tackles so evenly officiated! the game!

The home side were stronger, more organised and quicker to the ball so AFC were onto the back foot from the start and they took the lead in the tenth minute with a quick break  with Sam Parish shooting home a through ball after beating a flatish back four.

Sudbury were trying to get things together as shown in a nice move involving Dan Smith, Sam Boggis and Ryan Kent, but Walsham were winning the midfield battle with Swallow and Gathercole prominent and the forwards were always a threat to the visitors’ goal. Sudbury’s high balls in were being easily dealt with by the bigger home defenders while AFC were having more luck with a passing game on the deck as with a good looking passing move started by Thurgood, onto Smith, Taylor, Sharp, Ifield and Boggis but the final ball was lacking. This was followed by another involving Chisholm, Thurgood, Kent but Ifield’s shot hit the post.

Ben Bolton made a stopping tackle to deprive Diaper as he bore down on goal. Sharp was winning some of the balls in a hard midfield battle but generally Walsham were showing themselves as the dominant side and putting together some nice passing moves many initiated by Swallow, Gathercole, Diaper and Parish. But with just over five minutes remaining of the first half Sudbury got the equaliser as Ryan Kent picked up the ball on the right and turned and chipped the keeper nicely from an acute angle possibly  a little against the flow of the game.

Half Time:      Walsham-Le-Willows Res 1 – 1 AFC Sudbury Res

AFC changed their formation to 4-1-3-2 with Sharp sitting in front of the back four  to shaw up the defence but at the other end Fletcher and Cobbold were swallowing up everything Sudbury threw at them. Taylor and Bolton were dealing with the Walsham forwards better now while in the centre of the pitch Smith was trying to get attacks started.

Sudbury took the lead in the fifty-eighth minute when Ifield sent a great ball over finding Kent who finished the move off well. Walsham were back on even terms six minutes later from a corner on the right which was not well defended with Diaper heading home.

While Ifield was proving a thorn in Walsham’s side it was the home side who looked more like to add to the scoreline and Hinds had to make a sliding tackle to stop Goddard.

With 15 minutes left Boggis was replaced by Johnny Moore but disaster hit in the eighty-second minute when a telling ball into the goal area was instinctively handled away by Ben Bolton resulting in the defender being sent off and Walsham scoring from the penalty spot.

Jake Jackson came on for Thurgood and the excitement was not over as Moore had a shot cleared by the impressive Fletcher and in the dying embers Walsham added a fourth when the Sudbury defence did not boot the ball clear from an attack down the right.

One word sums up Sudbury Reserves’ general evening and that is ‘awful’ but there are mitigating circumstances  – a new XI with the ‘heart of the team’ ripped out due to first team calls, illness and unavailability; but the young players brought in put together some good looking moves and they will learn from this evening’s ‘set back’ and bounce back.

The Wizard Of Oz