IT'S a touch of d�j� vu for Needham Market skipper Mark Bailey right now.The commanding centre-half helped his side through to the last eight of the FA Vase for a second consecutive season.

Mike Bacon

IT'S a touch of d�j� vu for Needham Market skipper Mark Bailey right now.

The commanding centre-half helped his side through to the last eight of the FA Vase for a second consecutive season. And for a second consecutive season he will miss the match through suspension.

It's a blow Needham boss Danny Laws can't think too hard about right now. And for Bailey, it was just a case of getting through Saturday.

“It was a very hard tie as you can see,” Bailey said.

“I thought we defended well, but it was very hard in the mud. Yes I'll be missing the last eight tie again, but last season the boys did the business without me, I'm confident they can do it again.

“After training in the snow on Thursday night, I couldn't see this tie taking place, so a great thanks to all those who helped get the pitch playable.”

Needham keeper Liam Jones said: “Dereham are a good footballing side, everyone knows that, but we battled hard and I thought our wide players James Evans, Danny Thower and Jonathan Sparkes, when he came on, did superb for us.

“We can't think about the last eight too much, we have a league match at Harwich on Tuesday and Danny (Laws) has said he wants nothing less than a third-place finish.”

Laws meanwhile, was happy with his side's efforts.

“Didn't someone once say something about bouncebackability. I thought I heard it somewhere. Well, that's what we showed today after losing to Kirkley the other week,” Laws said.

“Our finishing wasn't as good as it could have been and if you don't take your chances in games against quality sides, you could be in trouble. But I'm very happy with the way we played.

“When they equalised our front five responded superbly and we attacked them well. The support was terrific again and all the players know the Club are 100% behind them. It's a good place to be right now.”

James Evans added: “We had that extra bit of quality and quite honestly I thought we bossed it from start to finish. If we hadn't won it would have been a traversty.”