IES 3 Peterborough III 2

Division 2N

Ipswich East Suffolk 3 City of Peterborough III 2

IES took on third placed promotion seekers City of Peterborough in hope of keeping on the tails of local rivals Sudbury and securing fourth place.

IES welcomed Makin, Trett, Francis, Gooderham, Mayhew and Klug back to the side but lost Cole, Farrow, Marshlain and Peck to work and travelling commitments.

As has been their way since the Christmas break, IES started well and pushed the visitors back with constant running from Taylor and Klug up front. Francis worked well down the left with skipper Borwick forcing the play down the right.

Klug gained IES' upper hand as he was fouled in mid shot, resulting in a penalty stroke. Centre back Brown stepped up to place the ball past the Peterborough keeper via the cross bar.

IES then stepped up a gear and veteran Taylor showed why he's been banging in goals for years with a clinical bottom corner strike following an excellent turn.

Good work from Phil Makin meant Klug bagged his second 1st XI goal with a neat strike to leave IES three up at the break.

If the home side thought they'd have an easy second half then they were wrong as the visitors forced several good moves but were let down by poor communication up front and awful discipline.

They scored through a dubious umpiring decision and thought that they had forced a second goal but a deflection was judged to have stayed the right side of the line despite protests. Umpire Lever was not swayed and decided no goal.

A similar effort minutes later resulted in the same forward scoring past Lane into the roof of the net plus a yellow card for his comments on the disallowed effort earlier.

IES were forced to hold on for dear life as both Borwick and Short went off injured. Brown led the defensive line superbly, seeing off numerous attacks as IES held on for another three points.

IES visit local rivals Felixstowe on Saturday aiming to keep the pressure on Sudbury, and send their hosts towards relegation out of Division 2N.