NON-LEAGUE sides stepped up their preparation ahead of the new season with more friendly matches last night.

Mildenhall Town 0 Bury Town 2

BURY Town won their second game against Thurlow Nunn opposition thanks to two early goals by Billy Clark in what was an entertaining contest.

Playing up the slope, Bury started brightly and after Sam Reed had twice gone close, they took the lead with a fine individual effort from Clark after 10 minutes.

Five minutes later they doubled the lead when Sam Reed was fouled in the box after some slack defending and Clark scored with a cheeky chip from the spot.

Play then flowed from end-to-end with both keepers making good saves, and half chances missed. John Sands was trying everything to score against his former club, but when he was on target he was denied by keeper Josh Pope.

Mildenhall looked much sharper after the break and little was seen of the Bury attack. Bury’s Marcus Garnham was much the busier keeper and made a fine save to deny David Cooper.

The game was then punctuated by numerous substitutions as Bury fought back but failed to trouble Pope.

Mildenhall still had the best of the chances but their finishing let them down in their efforts to reduce the arrears.

Brantham Athletic 1 Lowestoft Town 3

TWO Dale Cockrill penalties in the last 17 minutes eased Lowestoft Town to victory at Brantham.

The visitors were in front after ten minutes, Joe Francis sidefooting home at the far post after a low cross had evaded everyone in a packed goalmouth.

But Brantham were level inside two minutes, Michael Brothers curling his shot beyond Andy Reynolds into the top far corner.

Lowestoft made eight substitutes as opposed to Brantham’s four in the second half and two of them - the livewire Chris Henderson, twice, and Jack Defty - forced good saves from Ryan Bedingfield.

Cockrill scored from the spot in the 73rd minute after Danny Cunningham was felled by Jono Crouch, and repeated the feat ten minutes later when Henderson was sent flying by Bedingfield.

Lowestoft by no means had it all their own way and inbetween Lee Grimwood, who had stabbed wide just before half time after a storming run by Simon Mann, headed over from close range.

Hadleigh Utd 0 Leiston 4

LEISTON gained a deserved 4-0 win in the annual match for the Hadleigh Charity Cup at the Millfield on Tuesday.

Hadleigh managed only one shot on target in the whole match when a first-half effort from Neil Calver was well saved by Louis Johnson.

First-half goals by Danny Thrower and Gareth Heath, from a penalty kick, left the home side with a mountain to climb. In the second period Stuart Boardley netted a spectacular goal from 30 yards before Heath headed number four after 70 minutes.

The match was in aid of Diabetes UK.

Diss Town 1 Needham Market 1

NEEDHAM Market travelled to Diss for their second pre-season friendly and will be disappointed to come away with just a 1-1 draw in a keenly-contested match that saw Diss go down to 10 men when Stefan Gilding was sent off on 60 minutes for kicking out at James Hubbard.

Early exchanges were even with both sides trying to pass the ball. Needham’s best chance of the first half fell to Sam Newson when Kieran Leabon stole the ball in the middle of the park and fed Newson, who rounded the keeper but put his shot over the bar.

Needham dominated the latter stages of of the half and Danny Bloomfield had a shot easily saved by the keeper.

Craig Nurse then found himself in the referee’s book on 49 minutes and two minutes later the same player fired a shot wide.

After 60 minutes the game sparked into life when Hubbard produced a fine save from the keeper from a powerful header while under pressure. As both players landed on the floor it appeared Diss player Gilding kicked out at Hubbard and was shown a red card and a penalty awarded to Needham. Newson stepped up to take the penalty but fired his shot high and wide.

Newson made amends on 66 minutes when he converted a second Needham penalty. Nurse made a strong run into the box only to be brought down, Newson stepped up and converted to the right of the diving keeper.

Needham made several changes over the reminder of the match impacting on the flow of the game, and ten-man Diss levelled with a wonderful strike with Jason Hunt from outside the box on 85 minutes.