18th September 2021
Thetford Town vs Haverhill Rovers @ Mundford Road - Thetford
Thurlow Nunn Premier League (Step 5)
15:00 KO
£7 entry
Attendance - 82
Half-time score: Thetford Town 1-0 Haverhill Rovers
Goals:
Thetford Town: Clarke - 45'
Thetford Town: Felgueiras - 55'
Thetford Town: Fuller - 65'
Haverhill Rovers: Romanos - 77'
Thetford Town: Varela - 87'
Haverhill Rovers: Martin or Carroll - 88'
Leigh Simons took some great footage of each goal, see links below:
Final Score: Thetford Town 4-2 Haverhill Rovers
There is nothing better than watching non-league football on a sunny Saturday afternoon, so I decided to walk down to my nearest club, Thetford Town, so I could have a couple of pints whilst watching the action. Not only that, but todays game was a really important one in the context of the league, with Haverhill Rovers languishing in the relegation zone, and Thetford Town looking to put more of a points buffer in place after their excellent mid-week win against Hadleigh United. To demonstrate how close it is at the bottom, if 19th place Haverhill were to beat 14th place Thetford, they will likely jump ahead of them in the league. This game is also an important one for me from a personal perspective, Haverhill being the first place I moved to in East Anglia over 9 years ago, and more importantly it is the place where I found my wife. With all the pandemic chaos, this is my first time seeing them play at Thetford, so was an exciting tie for me. Finally, there had been some surprising news coming out of the Thetford camp during the week, with two key Thetford players opting to leave, namely the Bailey brothers, Luke and Ross. The Bailey family are synonymous with Thetford, with the main stand named after Mick Bailey, so it will be interesting to see how Thetford perform without these two influential players. Whilst I am sad to see them go, I wish them every success at their new club(s), reported to be Norwich CBS for Luke at the time of writing.
From kick-off, Haverhill Rovers started the game the brightest, although it has to be said that the quality of play from both team was poor, however, Haverhill Rovers did have the better possession and chances.
In the 9th minute, Haverhill captain Bradley switched the ball to Hussein, who got control of the ball, around the Thetford defender and turned before taking a couple of steps forward and firing in a shot from around 20 yards, however, it did not have enough on it and was comfortably saved by Rodgers. In the 22nd minute, it was Bradley again who provided the key ball, whipping in for Weaver to head home, however, the contact was too light to guide the ball goal-bound. In the 38th minute, it was that man Bradley again who recycled a corner, whipped another inviting ball, Carroll got his head to the ball but his effort went over the bar.
In the 39th minute came the best chance of the game so far. Haverhill's main playmaker, Bradley, dinked a ball down the right flank for Lee to chase. With no Thetford defenders even close to him, he ran through on goal unopposed, but instead of shooting he elected to square the ball to Hussein, who hit it first time, but young goalkeeper Rodgers had moved quickly from the near-post across the goal, and made a great save with his outstretched leg. From this, Visocanskis, playing in a right-back role today, picked up the ball and quickly launched a counter-attack. He looped the ball up to Fuller who won possession and laid the ball off to Varela on the left wing. Varela got round his man and managed to get a ball into the box that was begging to be tapped in, but was cleared by a Haverhill defender, a great passage of play from both teams.
Finally, in the 45th minute, the deadline was broken by Thetford. Felgueiras ran with the ball, towards the left flank and passed to Varela whilst maintaining his run to make an overlap. Varela fed the ball back to Felgueiras, who was through, but was completely wiped out by Weaver who was desperately chasing his man, and in my opinion, lucky to have not gotten a yellow. In any case, Cusack stepped up to take the free-kick, and he whipped in a lovely ball into the danger area, and defender Clarke leapt the highest to fire a bullet header into the goal, 1-0 to Thetford against the run of play, and crucially, just before half-time.
In the second half, buoyed by the late goal, Thetford came out looking the stronger team, and immediately began to pressurise the Haverhill defence. In the 46th minute, Varela and Felgueiras again combined well down the left, and seeing Cusack in space the ball was passed back to him. He hit a first time ball into the box that bounced on the penalty spot, allowing Laker, who was unmarked and running in from the right, to head the ball, but his effort sadly looped over the bar. In the 50th minute, Varela went on a mazy run down the left flank, managing to get deep into the box. Using his trickery, he managed to create enough space for a shot, but his strong effort hit the side netting.
In the 55th minute, Visocanskis pinged the ball up to Fuller, he met it and with his back towards goal, tapped it first-time towards Felgueiras, running in from the left. This caught the Haverhill defence unawares, and he was able to break through and drive his shot in at the far post, a superb goal, and 2-0 to Thetford.
Thetford continued to push for more goals, and in the 64th minute, Thetford's stand-in captain, Elliot Smith, launched a ball up the right flank for fleet-footed substitute Campbell, he got to the ball, ran into the box and managed to create enough room around the Haverhill defender to muster a shot on target, but his near-post effort was saved. In the 65th minute, Delgado fed Cusack who was bombing down the left wing. He slid to keep the ball in, close to the corner flag, and under no pressure, he took the time to whip in a brilliant, accurate ball into the box and striker Fuller got in front of keeper Jonah Gill, and guided his header home. A fine classic centre forward goal, and 3-0 to Thetford, for once getting their rewards for their positive and energetic attacking play.
Despite being three goals to the good, Thetford kept playing an attacking brand of football, and in the 70th minute, Campbell got hold of the ball on the right flank, cut through to the middle of the pitch and passed to Delgado, who fired off a bobbling 20 yard strike that the keeper did well to collect.
As the game was drawing closer to the end, Haverhill stepped up a gear, and in the 76th minute, Bradley fed Stoker, he looked to be going down the left, but chopped across, fooling the Thetford defender and he cracked off a powerful strike from the edge of the area that crashed into the crossbar and out, very unlucky that it did not go in as it was a superb effort. From the rebound, a corner was awarded, and the resulting ball in was headed by 1 or 2 players and hung high in the air, allowing Romanos the time to attempt an acrobatic effort, with his back to goal, and his amazing effort flew in, drawing a goal back for Haverhill, was a come-back now on?
In the 79th minute, Thetford looked to end the Haverhill come back just at it has begun, with Smith getting the ball out to the right flank for Campbell to chase. He laid the ball back to Delgado, open in the centre of the box, but the ball seemed to get tangled up in his feet and with the chance gone he passed to Delaune who fired in a shot that was either saved or blocked. Thetford kept pushing, and in the 87th minute, Delaune pinged a ball out to the right flank for Campbell to chase, he ran with the ball, drove into the box, and instead of shooting, dinked the ball into Varela, who was completely open in the box. Remaining calm, Varela picked his spot on the far side of the goal and stroked his shot home to restore Thetford's three goal advantage.
In the following minute, Visocanskis, a stand-in left back for today, traditionally being an attacking player, conceded a free-kick right on the edge of the box. Romanos curled in a shot on target, that was parried out by Rodgers, but unfortunately into the path of Martin who tapped in (although it is possible that Carroll got the last touch), to make it 4-2, and a very interesting last few minutes.
However, as Haverhill pressed for a winner, there was more space for Thetford to counter and get a 5th. Varela managed a shot on target that was saved, and Cusack nearly got a hattrick of assists in the 91st minute, providing a good ball in for Smith, who was stretching just too much to allow him to guide the header in, with it going wide instead, and after a few toothless attacks from Haverhill, the game was over.
From what started initially as a dismal first half, that turned into an exciting and enjoyable game from a Thetford perspective. That was the first time that I have seen them win since September 2020, so I hope that curse has now been lifted and I get to see more wins moving forwards. Looking at the league, Thetford are now mid-table and crucially 6 points clear of the relegation zone. I was impressed with performances all over the park, Varela, Felgueiras and Cusack linked up nicely down the left, Smith and Mann were dogged in midfield and Campbell looked sharp when he came on, his pace is a valuable outlet for the team, so pleased to see he is back from injury. Hopefully, Bond will also be coming back from injury to help shore up the defence, but Visocanskis put in a great shift considering he is an attacking player, so well done to him. I am concerned about Haverhill, they looked impotent for large periods of the game, but when they did come to life, they clearly have some good attacking players such as Bradley, Stoker and Romanos, so I hope that their performances improve in the coming weeks. Having a family connection to Haverhill, I do want to see them do well, although not at the expense of Thetford Town and Lakenheath of course. October is jam packed full of Thetford Town fixtures, both home and some close away games, such as Mulbarton Wanderers, so I will be covering a few more games in the coming month. Again, well done to the team and management for getting six points in the last two games, it is well deserved. UP THE TOWN!!
Line-Ups:
THETFORD TOWN: Macauley Rodgers, Artur Visocanskis, Andrew Cusack, Matt Morton, Nathan Clarke, Elliott Smith (C), Adam Laker, Jake Mann, Ryan Fuller, Bernardo Felgueiras, Joao Varela. SUBS: Michael Campbell, Jack Delaune, Marley Delgado, Wilson Cruz, John Taylor
HAVERHILL ROVERS: Jonah Gill, Charlie Davies, Jack Martin, Efraim Romanos, Reiss Oteng, Alfie Carroll, Ryan Weaver, Ben Bradley (C), Joshua Lee, Tom Stoker, Ridwan Hussein. SUBS: Marc Abbott, Charlie Walker, James Philp
Another great match report by James Redman. Lots of detail, professionally written and backed up by match footage. This is good stuff for this level of football