Thurlow Nunn Premier: Thetford Town 3-2 Stowmarket Town

5th September 2026

Thetford Town vs Stowmarket Town @ The Lomax Spiral Systems Stadium - Thetford

Thurlow Nunn Premier Division (Step 5)

15:00 KO

£9 entry

Attendance - 245

Half-time score: Thetford Town 2-1 Stowmarket Town

Goals:

Stowmarket Town: Mills - 11'(P)

Thetford Town: Diggens - 26'

Thetford Town: King - 36', 57'(P)

Stowmarket Town: Cunningham - 63'

Final Score: Thetford Town 3-2 Stowmarket Town

This afternoon saw Thetford Town host their first home Saturday afternoon league game of the season, and it was a big as the current front-runners Stowmarket Town make the short journey up. Stowmarket Town signed a lot of high profile players over the summer and this seems to be paying off in these early stages as they have won 6 games from 7, have a goal difference of +8 with one of the big signings Darren Mills having netted 9 goals already. Thetford have also started the season well, with a big 5-0 away win on Tuesday night at Heacham, so hopefully the goals continue to flow this afternoon, it was shaping up to be a big clash between two strong teams.

It was a mild sunny afternoon in Thetford, which enticed a large crowd to come out to support both sides. Before long the teams were lining up, with Thetford Town in claret & blue, with Stowmarket Town opting to go with their away white strip with black shorts.

KEY MOMENTS

TT = Thetford Town

ST = Stowmarket Town

9' - TT - Elliot Smith with a long ball up the left flank, the ball bounces and Diggens reads the trajectory the best and pounces onto the ball, before firing in a low effort at the near-post, keeper Shorten gets something on it and the ball skims across the open goal, but Kirk cannot quite get to it in time at the far-post.

11' - ST - PENALTY & GOAL (0-1) - Gordon-Clement bursts down the left cuts into the box and goes toe-to-toe with Cooper, battling for the ball shoulder-to-shoulder, Gordon-Clement goes down and the referee points to the spot, one of the softest penalties I've seen for a while! Stowmarket top goalscorer Darren Mills steps up and blasts the ball into the net with ease, sending Sutton the wrong way.

20' - TT - Cooper with a high ball into the box, keeper Shorten comes out to collect it and Diggens competes for the ball, there is some contact and Shorten swipes at the ball and misses, and it drops into the net, but the goal is disallowed as it is judged that the minor contact on Shorten constituted a foul.

26' - TT - GOAL (1-1) - Buttle on the left with a neat ball to Kirk in the box, with his back to goal he lays it off to Diggens, who from the edge of the box absolutely blasts his laces through the ball and it rockets into the underside of the crossbar and in, have some of that! Another sensational strike from Diggo this season to deservedly put Thetford back on level terms with the league leaders.

28' - TT - Kirk blazes down the right, he whips the ball across the danger area and King is millimetres away from connecting at the far-post, a corner is awarded so Stowmarket must have got something on it to deflect it just out of King's reach.

29' - TT - A short corner routine gets Olpin in a great position to cross the ball into the far-post, Elliot Smith is there and leaps to compete for the ball, but is unable to connect, unlucky.

36' - TT - GOAL (2-1) - A long ball forwards from Buttle in a deep position, a deft headed flick-on from Diggens plays King through, he darts forwards and 1-on-1 with the keeper he sweeps the ball beyond the retreating Shorten with aplomb, and Thetford impressively turn the game around.

39' - TT - Kirk released down the right, he cuts inside and hammers a strike towards the bottom-right corner, it looks in but Shorten gets the faintest of touches on it to divert the ball wide for a corner.

45'+ 4' - TT - SIN BIN - Just before half-time, Olpin receives a yellow and is sent to the sin bin. Not sure why, he was taking a free-kick and had sent the ball in, bizarre.

57' - TT - PENALTY & GOAL (3-1) - Just before Olpin returned to the field from his stint in the sin-bin, Thetford with a free-kick, it is launched in and half-cleared, but Harvey Lott picks up the ball from outside the box and drives in, a Stowmarket players seems to dive in front of him (Nunn?) and he goes down, and the referee immediately points to the spot. King steps up and his effort is almost identical to the Mills penalty, and Thetford put in a two-goal cushion.

58' - TT - Almost immediately after going 3-1 up, Thetford have a strong shout for a follow-on penalty, Kirk chases down a ball into the box it is cleared by the keeper but he is completed wiped out off the ball byu the covering defender, a clear foul but the referee dismisses it.

63' - ST - GOAL (3-2) - Thetford concede a needless free-kick in a dangerous position. There is a lot of jostling at the far-post between Thetford captain bond and Mills, but the ball was never heading that way and Cunningham with a brilliant left-footed strike curls the ball into the top-left corner, a superb hit, game on!

80' - ST - Mundawarara down the right, he skips past two players and now in a central position he powers in an effort, but thankfully it is launched narrowly over the bar.

83' - TT - A sweeping attack from Thetford, a neat 1-2 between Diggens and King down the right, Diggens battles for space in the box and not able to see the net he squares to Harvey Lott in a more central position, he immediately snaps in a strike and is denied by a great reaction save from Shorten.

88' - TT - RED CARD - Stowmarket with a dangerous looking break on, Olpin grabs the shirt of the Stowmarket attacker and brings him down, and in doing so receives his second yellow and therefore his marching orders. This one was certainly a yellow, but still baffled about the first one, and I think many Thetford fans agreed as he was applauded of the field for his efforts.

96' - ST - A huge moment near the end of the game, a free-kick ball is floated in by the set-piece specialist Cunningham, a headed effort comes in and looks to be looping in, but Ward is on hand and jumps up high to get his head on the ball to clear the effort, fine work from Ronnie, that is as good as a goal!

What a game, that had it all, goals, controversial decisions, penalties, a sin-binning, a red card, a goal saving header, a great turnaround from a losing position, a vociferous crowd and most importantly a Thetford Town win against the top-of-the-table side, pure entertainment! This is a statement win from Thetford Town, not only beating the form side of the league, but doing so with only 10-men on the field for 20 minutes of the game, the lads all put in a lions performance to get that result over the line. I was particularly impressed with how effective and hard-working Ronnie Ward was in his defensive duties, and his goal-saving header was the cherry on top. The Thetford attack also looked particular lethal, the free-running force of Diggens, Kirk, Buttle, Harvey Lott and King would give most teams something to think about, and they never gave up, the waves of attack were relentless, especially when Elliot Smith pushed forwards to give the defence even more to think about. Stowmarket stuck in there, they could easily have been swept away, and they had multiple set-pieces to tie the game, Thetford rode their luck at times, but did deserve win looking at the game as a whole. Also fair play to the Stowmarket players shaking the hands of the loudest contingent of the Thetford crowd after the final whistle, love to see that, great sportsmanship. Final shout-outs to Cooper who was put in another fine shift and was not to blame for the penalty in my view, he was just competing for the ball, Olpin who pulled the strings again and whose game was undone by a confusing decision before the break, captain Sam Bond who led the team from the front with a battling performance against a particularly formidable Darren Mills, and Sutton for collecting a lot of dangerous balls in to the box to ease the pressure. Of course, a shout out is also needed for Matt Morton and his coaching team for devising that win, you could see how much it meant to them at the end of the game. The win keeps Thetford Town in the mix, but their eyes will be off the league for a bit as they next travel to St Neots Town in the FA Vase, some of the most memorable recent moments in recent years have come from this competition so hopefully The Brecklanders can kick-start another exciting cup campaign, looking forward to it, UP THE TOWN!!!

Line-Ups:

THETFORD TOWN: Ollie Sutton, Kyran Cooper, Sam Bond (C), Elliot Smith, Ronnie Ward, Cameron King, Callum Olpin, Harvey Lott, Dylan Kirk, Jordan Buttle, George Diggens. SUBS: Ben Mills, Amouree Wellington, Lawrence Blyth, Theo Piggott, Rhion Davison.

STOWMARKET TOWN: Finn Shorten, Hayden Baker, Charlie Butt, Dev Cunningham (C), Cohen Donohue, Sam Nunn, Panashe Mundawarara, Reece Clarke, Darren Mills, Joel Simmons, Ewan Gordon-Clement. SUBS: Jack Wharton-Richardson, Zac Pedro, Luke Budgen, Bart Lorimer, Harley Jordan-Smith.