11th September 2021
Thetford Rovers vs Stalham Town @ Euston Park - Euston (near Thetford)
Anglian Combination Division One (Step 8)
14:30 KO
Free entry
Attendance - approx. 40-50
Half-time score: Thetford Rovers 2-1 Stalham Town
Goals:
Stalham Town: Tipple - 19'
Thetford Rovers: Briviglieiri - 27'
Thetford Rovers: Dean - 45'+3
Stalham Town: Beeson - 58' (Pen)
Thetford Rovers: V. Rocha - 75'
Full-time Score: Thetford Rovers 3-2 Stalham Town
Although I did manage to see one of Thetford Rovers pre-season friendlies for this season, the team has vastly changed, even since then. For those not aware, Thetford Rovers appointed a new manager in Bruno Tavares, a player formerly of Thetford Town and more recently Mundford, and he has been busy building a side to turn-around Rovers poor form of last season, and to ultimately launch a promotion campaign. To this end, he has been very successful, attracting some big names from higher divisions such as Liam Hemming, Telmo Rocha, Joshua Tucker and most notably of all, Valter Rocha, a player well known for scoring a lot of spectacular goals for Thetford Town, and more recently Norwich CBS. Despite a difficult start, Rovers have since had some big wins and I was really excited to see the team that is being built down at Rovers in action.
Today's opponents were Stalham Town, a team that Rovers faced last week in the league cup, and comfortably despatched 4-1, however, they undoubtedly would have learnt a lot from that game, and had a whole week to prepare tactics to disrupt Thetford Rovers, so I was expecting a good battle.
It was clear early on that Stalham had planned to prevent danger man Valter Rocha from getting into the game, by playing tight and being aggressive. This lead to an early chance in the 3rd minute, with V. Rocha being fouled 5 yards outside of the box. Valter stepped up to take the free-kick and although the strike was on target, it did not trouble the goalkeeper.
Although Stalham battled hard, the better chances were being carved out by the Rovers. In the 10th minute, some neat trickery from Fortes allowed him the space to put a ball in for V. Rocha, but it had slightly too much on it. Nevertheless, V. Rocha managed to collect the ball on the right flank and squared it into the box for an open Briviglieiri, who, seeing the keeper off the line, attempted the lob but he also put too much on it and it sailed over. In the 14th minute, V. Rocha nicked the ball off a defender, deep in Stalham's half, but his resulting 20 yard strike was just wide.
Totally against the run of play, a calamitous error from the Thetford Rovers keeper, Hunt, gifted Stalham the lead. In the 19th minute, the No. 5 played a big long ball up to right corner. The Stalham winger, Tipple, got to the ball and managed a rather tame effort on goal, however, Hunt completely missed the ball and it rolled slowly towards the goal and over the line, despite a Rovers defenders best effort to clear.
Despite having gone a goal down, Rovers continued to create the better chances. In the 24th minute, a long free-kick fell short, but was kept alive by Briviglieiri as he headed it back in. The ball eventually ended up with Hutcherson who made a run in to square the ball to Fortes. He went for a shot but missed the ball, and it was semi-cleared only as far as V. Rocha on the edge of the box. His goal poacher instinct kicked in and he smashed the ball goal-bound, only to be handled on the line by the No. 5 Stalham defender. The referee made no hesitation to send him off and to award a penalty. Rovers striker James Dean stepped up to take the penalty and he aimed low to the keepers left, but he got down well and made the save, and fortuitously for Stalham, no Rovers players had followed the ball in so it was cleared, a big missed opportunity for the Rovers.
Rovers did not waste any time rueing the missed penalty and continued to attack the Stalham goal, and only a minute later they deservedly managed to find the equaliser. Fortes won possession on the half-way line and made a good run, through several Stalham defenders, to the goal-line on the right flank. He laid the ball back to Briviglieiri, who was open in the box, and he took his time and passed the ball into the net, through a flurry of scrambling defenders.
Rovers wanted to press home their one man advantage and continued to assault the Stalham goal. In the 33rd minute, Briviglieiri played a through-ball for V. Rocha to chase. It was a 50/50 between him and the onrushing keeper, who just managed to get there first, but there was a nasty collision between the two players. Play stopped for 5 minutes and sadly the Stalham keeper was taken off injured by what looked to be a hand/wrist injury, meaning an outfield player on the subs bench (Jamie Clarke) had to come on to fill the void.
With Stalham down to 10 men, and with an inexperienced goalkeeper, things looked great for the Rovers, and as before, they continued to have the run of the play. In the 41st minute, Briviglieiri whipped in a ball that missed everyone, but V. Rocha chased and picked it up, drove towards goal from the left flank and blasted the ball into the side-netting. The Rovers eventually took the lead in the 3rd minute of injury time, Vickers switched play by whipping a long ball from the left flank down the right flank that was chased and picked up by Briviglieiri. He then neatly crossed the ball into the box and Dean was able to head in at the near post, 2-1 to the Rovers.
Just before the half-time whistle, Stalham came close, a ball in from the No. 11 just needed a touch from Stalham attacker Beeson, but he missed by mere inches. Despite being a man-down they were still dangerous.
With the advantage that Thetford Rovers had, I expected them to come out and steamroller the opposition, but to the contrary, Stalham came out organised and up for a battle, this was not going to be simple for the Rovers, and as the half wore in, it was clear that they were becoming increasingly frustrated. The only real noteworthy chance in the first 10 minutes came in the 53rd minute, V. Rocha finding Briviglieiri to the right of goal whose shot was fired harmlessly into the side netting.
As Rovers were toiling, they were becoming less disciplined, and Stalham took full advantage of this in the 58th minute. A ball was whipped into the box from the right flank and a Thetford Rovers defender was adjudged to have pushed a Stalham player in the back, and the referee awarded a penalty that was taken quickly and slotted in by Beeson.
The equaliser appeared to knock some sense into Rovers, and they began to carve out more chances despite the excellent hard-working and tenacious Stalham defence. In the 63rd minute, interplay between Briviglieiri and V. Rocha ended up with the later curling a shot towards the far post, but this did not phase the stand-in keeper Clarke, and he calmly, and rather surprisingly, collected the ball. In the 67th minute, a deft little back-heel volleyed touch from V. Rocha fell to Briviglieiri, whose half-volley effort blazed over the bar. Sensing that his team were struggling to break down the Stalham defence, and becoming ever impatient, player-manager Bruno Tavares came on with 20 minutes left to play.
No sooner had he come on and Stalham had a chance from a free-kick in the 69th minute that flew to the far post where the No. 6 messed up his opportunity. After that, Rovers pressed for the win, and in the 75th minute, substitute Hunt played Tavares through and he beat his man and ran to the by-line to chop the ball across goal, and with nobody marking him, V. Rocha had a simple tap-in to make it 3-2 to the Rovers. Great play from the player-manager who had made an immediate impact since coming on.
Rovers saw the opportunity to improve their goal difference so went searching for more goals. In the 81st minute, T. Rocha made a jinking run into and through the box, and having cleared the last of the defenders, he shot at the far post but it went wide. In the 83rd minute, Joseph played V. Rocha through, but stalwart defending forced him to lay ball back to the edge of the area, where substitute Tucker was, but his tame effort went wide. In the 88th minute, Tavares played in the quick Tucker on the left flank, he ran in on goal and fired his shot into the side-netting, the third time this game for the Rovers, the Stalham goal was leading a charmed life.
In the dying embers of the game, a controversial moment occurred in the 89th minute. A through-ball was played to V. Rocha, and he was clearly onside, but was met with a huge roar of outrage from the Stalham bench and players. In the ensuing chaos, V. Rocha laid the ball off to Tavares, who, spotting the keeper off his line, deftly chipped him. However, it would appear that amongst the chaos, Rovers substitute Tucker kicked-out at somebody and was given a red card. Unfortunately, I did not see why he lashed out as I was watching Bruno's wonderful chip that was sadly chalked off. In the final play of the game, in the 91st minute, Stalham nearly stole a point, a long ball from the No. 3 finding Beeson who's effort was wide by the narrowest of margins. And with that, the game was over, Rovers were certainly made to work hard for those 3 points!
Overall that was a dramatic game, and the pressures of being a man up, and playing against a team without a recognised goalkeeper led to a laboured performance from Thetford Rovers. It does however have to be said that Stalham went into the game with a clear plan and it almost paid off, they fought resolutely and were well marshalled and hard to breakdown until the bitter end. Rovers should be proud of the 3 points they battled for, 3 points that did not come easy the previous season. From what I saw, Rovers do need to improve their passing game, playing with their heads-up, remaining calm and looking for simpler balls, but clear signs of improvement are there. I did also notice that the Rovers players became increasingly frustrated leading to ill discipline, and flaring tempers, so this is certainly something to watch out for, afters even went on in the dugouts and en-route to the changing rooms after the final whistle, which is not the best end to an enthralling game. Nevertheless, it was a great well-earned three points for Thetford Rovers, and they clearly have a dangerous team that not many D1 teams will be relishing facing. UP THE ROVERS!!!
Line-Ups:
THETFORD ROVERS: Callum Hunt, Arron Joseph (C), Samuel Cantley, Taylor Vickers, Todd Hutcherson, Liam Twomey, Claudinei Briviglieiri, Pedro Fortes, James Dean, Telmo Rocha, Valter Rocha. SUBS: Luke Hunt, Joshua Tucker, Callum Crabb
STALHAM TOWN (not in number order): Ryan Beeson (9), Lewis Buckley, Liam Cork, Thomas Crabb, Daniel Duffield, Alexander Hammond, Darren Miller, Christopher Purton-Turner, Daniel Tindall, Jordan Tipple (C) (7), Matthew Watling. SUBS: Ollie Bell, Jamie Clarke, Luke Newman.
Comments