Harleston V 4 IES III 2

Harleston V 4 Ipswich East Suffolk III 2

Harleston V held on for a win over IES despite a second half comeback.

This always promised to be a hard game for IES as Harleston fielded a 14 man squad whereas IES had a bear 11 and so it transpired in the early stages.

For the first 20 minutes IES struggled to keep possession and quickly went three goals down, however, the visitors battled gamely and IES gradually started to probe the Harleston defence.

Gary Wardman-Browne was very unfortunate when a ball, passed across the front of goal from John Wright, was struck home only for the goal to be disallowed as the whistle had already gone for a foot infringement. The resulting penalty corner was poor consolation as it was not converted.

By half time Harleston were 4-0 up, but IES came out fighting with renewed vigour after the break and ten minutes into the half they were awarded a penalty corner.

The push out was expertly stopped by Dave Charles but the resulting strike looked to be on course to obliterate the corner flag only for the ball to be deflected back into the Harleston net.

From this moment on IES had most of the play and, with the midfield opened out, IES penetrated the Harleston defence on numerous occasions, soon being rewarded with a second from Stu List.

In a repeat of the first half, a ball struck across the face of goal was slotted home by John Wright only for the whistle to have been blown.