10th August 2021
Thetford Town vs Walsham-le-Willows @ Mundford Road - Thetford
Thurlow Nunn Premier League (Step 5)
19:45 KO
£7 entry
Attendance - 145
Half-time score: Thetford Town 0-2 Walsham-le-Willows
Goals:
Walsham-le-Willows: J. Smith - 9'
Walsham-le-Willows: Norman - 30'
Final Score: Thetford Town 0-2 Walsham-le-Willows
Thetford Town has started the 2021/22 season with 2 difficult away games against Lakenheath and Wroxham, taking a well earned point at Lakenheath and a bit of a beating at strong promotion candidates Wroxham. Today, three games in, marked Thetford's first home game of the season, and the ground was buzzing for this local derby against Walsham-le-Willows. There have been some close and exciting games between these two clubs over the last few years, and several of the Thetford players, such as Clarke, Cusack and manager Morton played at Walsham for many years, giving even more meaning and needle to this game. Thetford lost both games in the 20/21 season, both 1-0, with Jamie Smith scoring each time, so he was certainly the danger man. This game had all of the hallmarks of a close and combative game.
Over the Summer, the stands had been given a lick of paint, and new LED floodlights were installed, giving the whole Mundford Road ground a lift. Programmes were still printed by Barnes Print, with a new-look front cover, see below:
For the first few minutes of the game, each team tried a series of long balls and speculative passes, and the ball ricocheted around the midfield to no avail. However, one of these came off in the 9th minute for Walsham, a long ball from Collins finding J. Smith, who was able to battle and beat two Thetford defenders and slot the ball home, a very well taken goal, and his third goal in three games against Thetford.
Thetford fought back, and in the 19th minute a R. Bailey free-kick found Clarke in the box, but he was only able to direct his header over. Shortly after this, Walsham unleashed a fast attack, J. Smith rushed into the box from the left and could have scored his second if it were not for an excellent block from L. Bailey. Walsham had a further chance in the 26th minute, with the ball nearly being scrambled in from a corner.
Thetford has another excellent chance for an equaliser in the 28th minute, a cross from Visocanskis being cleared into the path of E. Smith who could only manage a scuffed shot. Walsham quickly made Thetford pay for the missed chances and went two clear in the 30th minute. A long ball from Saffrey, pinged towards the right corner, was gathered by K. Twinn who battled to win the ball under immense pressure from Josh Mann. Twinn managed to get clear, and put a low ball into the box that was fired in from point-blank range by Norman at the near post.
For the rest of the second half, Thetford pushed to get back into the game and came close twice. The first chance, in the 39th minute, was a good ball into the box by R. Bailey that was headed just wide by E. Smith. Even better was the second chance in the 42nd minute, Clarke dinked a beautiful ball into Dixon (who had just replaced Fuller), he beat the offside trap to be through on goal 1-on-1, and what looked certain to be a goal was just a relatively tame header directly at the goalkeeper. If this had gone in, as it should have, Thetford would have gone into the second half only one goal down, but it was not to be.
The entirety of second half was all Thetford, they were by far the better side, with Walsham creating no chances of note. It has to be said that Walsham made a fair few substitutions throughout the half, and certainly played safe football to protect their lead, but they were extremely fortunate that Thetford were unable to find the net because they certainly deserved too. In the second half, Thetford had six notable chances.
In the 59th minute, the ball pinged around the box and went just inches wide of the left post. In the 61st minute, Visocanskis put in a dangerous cross for Cusack, but the ball was just intercepted by the outstretched goalkeeper Fenner, but as he landed he lost balance and stepped backwards, he can't have been far from crossing the goal-line! In the 70th minute good work down the right led to a cross into the box from Visocanskis and the resulting Cusack shot was saved, and again in the 73rd minute another ball from Visocanskis was headed just wide by Dixon. In the 82nd minute, the Bailey brothers linked up, Luke supplying Ross who cracked a stinger of a shot on goal, but it was narrowly over. Finally, the best chance of the second half fell to E. Smith in the 93rd minute, who headed a ball in from Cusack towards the top right corner, and it would have been a certain goal if not for the acrobatic save from experienced keeper Fenner. The Walsham goal certainly led a charmed life all game, how Thetford did not score I will never know.
This is a difficult game to reflect on, because on the face of it, losing 2-0 at home to your local rivals is never a good result. However, barring the first 30mins, Thetford were arguably the better team, definitely creating more chances, and on another day, they would have expected to have scored at least 3 goals based on the chances that they fashioned. Although the overall feeling is of frustration, Thetford should take heart from this and go into the next game confident that they can cause teams trouble, and also take heart that they did not concede for the final hour of this game. It has to be said that Thetford looked a bit lethargic at the start of the game, and in contrast, the triple pronged Walsham front line of J. Smith, Norman and Twinn looked sharp. Keeping Twinn from scoring, or even having any chances of note is impressive as he was top scorer in the division last season. I plan to be back at Mundford Road for the next home game, and Breckland derby, against Swaffham Town on the 24th August. In the meantime, I wish Thetford the best of luck on their trip to the coast at Gorleston. UP THE TOWN!!
Line-Ups:
THETFORD TOWN: Frank Gammon, Sam Bond (C), Joshua Mann, Luke Bailey, Nathan Clarke, Elliot Smith, Artur Visocanskis, Ross Bailey, Ryan Fuller, Bernardo Felgueiras, Andrew Cusack. SUBS: Macauley Rodgers, Marley Delgado, Jake Mann, Jack Delaune, Kristian Dixon
WALSHAM-LE-WILLOWS: Steve Fenner, Henry Harvey, Jed Wigley (C), Scott McGavin, Karl Saffrey, Harvey Hubbard, Matt Collins, Ryan Clark, Jamie Smith, Charlie Norman, Kieran Twinn. SUBS: Kyran Cooper, Cameron Nicholls, Jack Spampanato, Callum Dove, Dan Stobbart
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