IES 3 Norwich City II 3

Division 2N

Ipswich East Suffolk 3 Norwich City II 3

IES gained a draw against bogey team Norwich City in their first league match of the season.

After some pleasing performances in their friendly encounters against higher league opposition, IES put out a strong side and dictated the early exchanges.

Despite utility player Nick Aveling and goalkeeper James Lane being unavailable, IES combined ball speed and communication, the mantras of the team's motivational guru Danny Mayhew, throughout the first half.

As IES started to pass the ball simply, holes emerged in the visitors' defence and with a quick passing move Tingey was setup for a one-on-one which he would have put away on another day.

With City defending deep and IES controlling the possession it looked like a goal was inevitable for the home side. That was until City broke with five minutes to go before half-time, winning a short corner which they converted efficiently.

After that a lack of discipline and composure surfaced within the IES team and another killer break combined with some sloppy defending let City in for a second goal which flattered the away side greatly.

It was great credit to IES then that they never let their heads go down and some calming words from Mayhew brought out the best in the team in the second half.

Stu Gooderham, who had played some intelligent, creative hockey to this point, switched into centre midfield and Scott Cole continued to frighten the City defence with his speed and skill.

Ten minutes into the second half the pressure from IES told and Scott Cole converted a short corner with a sweet strike deflecting off the keeper.

IES continued to press City and the breakthrough came from another short corner which was this time flicked over the keeper by the injector Kevyn Browne.

IES had managed to claw the game back to 2-2 and with all the momentum looked the more likely to grab a winner until City hit a speculative ball to their forward who emerged in acres of space to go one-on-one with the keeper Charlie Farrow and eventually scored.

While this could have been the killer blow, IES continued to press a stubborn City defence and eventually found reward from a short corner with the ball being slipped left to Stu Gooderham who finished extremely well under pressure.

With five minutes left IES threw everything forward but couldn't find a winner with the skipper Borwick failing to take advantage of a good pull back by Tingey in the dying moments.