Thurlow Nunn Premier: Thetford Town 1-1 Harleston Town
- jsredman1
- Nov 5, 2022
- 4 min read
5th November 2022
Thetford Town vs Harleston Town @ Mundford Road - Thetford
Thurlow Nunn Premier Division (Step 5)
15:00 KO
£7 entry
Attendance - 127
Half-time score: Thetford Town 0-0 Harleston Town
Goals:
Thetford Town: Diggens - 56'
Harleston Town: Borrer - 73'
Leigh Simons recorded the goals - see the links below:
Final Score: Thetford Town 1-1 Harleston Town
This is a game I have been looking forward to for a while, with two of the early pace setters facing up against each other, 1st vs 3rd, and Harleston Town being a team I have never seen before so I was intrigued to see what they were all about. Despite the fast starts, both Thetford and Harleston have made a few slip ups recently, so securing 3-points for either side would go a long way towards maintaining their excellent starts, especially as Hadleigh United have entered the battle at the top and are on a fantastic run, being only 2 points behind Thetford at the top.
In a typical grey and drizzly autumn day, with the pitch treading a fine line between fast and boggy, both teams came out in their home shirts, Thetford Town in claret & blue, and Harleston Town in black & white stripes with yellow accents.
KEY MOMENTS
TT = Thetford Town
HA = Harleston Town
11' - TT - Diggens is released down the right wing, he takes it round the defender, leaving him on the floor and crosses in a brilliant ball towards the far post, where it is met by an onrushing Gilchrist, who strikes a volley at pace, but is denied a fantastic goal by a brilliant reaction save from Pride, with the ball turned away for a corner.
14' - TT - During a Thetford attack, Gilchrist picks up the ball and steps through the melee, making room for a strike from the edge of the box, but whilst struck well, it flies wide.
30' - HA - The pitch opens up for defender Manning, and he tries his luck from 25 yards, his effort is looking to have beaten keeper Tom Smith, but it is just wide of the far post.
56' - TT - GOAL (1-0) - Captain Elliot Smith battles hard for the ball on the Harleston by-line, he steals possession from defender Cook and squares the ball into Diggens on the centre-spot, he takes two touches and unleashes a powerful right footed strike that flies across the goal and into the back side netting of the goal to put Thetford emphatically 1-0 up against tough opposition.
59' - TT - Diggens attacks down the right wing again, he crosses in to the far post where the ball is met by a Cusack header, he nods the ball across the goal and it looked to heading into the side netting, but somehow goes millimeters wide of the post - painfully close!
68' - TT - Thetford play a short corner, and the ball is passed to Mann just outside the left corner of the Harleston area, he wraps his foot around the ball and his curling effort flies just over the top right corner of the goal, crashing down into the roof on the netting, that's how close it was!
73' - HA - GOAL (1-1) - Coming from a dubious foul in the centre of the field, winger Page attacks down the right flank and skins the defend with a sublime turn, he bursts into the box and runs towards club captain Borrer, and from a short pass the latter hits a first time strike, somewhat surprising Tom Smith to beat him at his near post, and bringing Harleston back into this game to set-up an exciting end to the game.
86' - TT - Thetford break quickly, substitute Fuller hooks the ball up and over the Harleston back line to release fellow substitute Visocanskis, having beating the offside trap, he is through 1-on-1, but with the goal begging his effort is well saved by Pride, who to be fair closed down the space quickly, but it was a big miss at a crucial point of the game.
90' - HA - Up the other end, at the game draws to a close, a long ball releases substitute Crisp, he looks to be through, but defender Balment strains every sinew to get back and put in a clean tackle to steal the ball off him, a match-saving tackle indeed!
That was a really enjoyable competitive game of football, it was clear that Harleston were a well organised compact and physical team set-up to counter-attack, in contrast to Thetford's fast paced quick passing game. Due to both teams being set-up and organised well, they cancelled each other out for large parts of the game, a typical top of the table clash, but overall I would say that Thetford created the better chances, especially in the first 25mins of the 2nd half, but Harleston were resolute and played themselves back into the game, so perhaps a draw was a fair reflection. I was pleased with how Thetford played and thought that every player put in a huge shift in the driving rain, a complete team performance and on another day they would have and should have taken all 3-points, but it was never going to be easy against Harleston, so well done to Matt and the team. Next up is Mildenhall Town away on Tuesday night for a Challenge Cup tie, the last game there not going to plan for Thetford, but if they play like they did today I'm sure that they will do well, UP THE TOWN!!!
Line-Ups:
THETFORD TOWN: Tom Smith, Andrew Cusack, Matt Morton, Connor Balment, Adam Laker, Jake Mann, Elliot Smith (C), Cameron King, Emmanuel Machaya, Dan Gilchrist, George Diggens. SUBS: Jordan Lake, Artur Visocanskis, Macauley Rodgers, Sam Bond, Ryan Fuller.
HARLESTON TOWN: Elliot Pride, Aedan Oliver, Charlie Hitch, Joseph Manning, Matthew Cook, Oliver Ebbage, Robert Turner, Sam Borrer (C), Nathan Russell, Joshua Durham, Nathan Page. SUBS: Henri Arnold, Ryan Crisp, Mitchell Belmar, Mark Shadrack, Connor Delaney.
Comments