Saturday 13th September 2008
DISS TOWN 3, BLOATERS 4
Diss – 1 Mark Camidge, 2 Gavin Pauling, 3 Ed Cussons, 4 Stephen Best, 5 Kevin
Leggett, 6 Luke Catchpole, 7 Danny McKail, 8 Andrew Moody, 9 Ben Deacon, 10 Adrian Hayes (c), 11 Osiris Gomes. Subs: 12 James
Wilson, 14 Brendan Foley, 15 George Wilson, 16 Daniel Partridge, 17 Mark Shadrack.
Yarmouth – 1 Michael Hilton, 2 Adam Sewell, 3 Ollie Savage, 4 Gareth Palmer,
5 Adey Ager, 6 Toby Gorbould, 7 Darren Lamb, 8 Chris Squires, 9 Stewart Roach, 10 Liam Bartley, 11 Scott Woodcock. Subs: 12
Mark Thompson, 14 Jake Reed, 15 Sam Watts, 16 Elliot Pride, 17 José Vide.
Referee – A Chapman (Ipswich)
With Alan Darby and captain Adam Sullivan both unavailable for this match, Toby Gorbould
was brought into the defence, and Chris Squires, signed from Norwich United midweek, took the vacant number eight spot: 21-year
old Squires has already been briefly at Wellesley Road having made one Reserves appearance for the Bloaters in 2004-05. Michael
Hilton in goal was making his first appearance at Brewers Green Lane
since switching from Diss to Yarmouth in the summer; the same could be said of Yarmouth joint boss Paul Tong who managed Diss for most of last season.
Yarmouth, wearing their attractive new sky blue and white away strip, were the first to attack through Roach
and Woodcock but the ball ran kindly for Camidge to collect. McKail advanced down the Diss right and his cross brought Hilton
to his knees, and Hilton was then forced to concede the game’s first corner as Moody tried to connect with a through
ball.
The Tangerines took the lead in only the eighth minute: a crossfield pass by Leggett was
collected by left winger GOMES who took a couple of steps forward before unleashing a super left-foot
shot from the edge of the box and across Hilton into the far corner.
With the Barmy Army lending considerable vocal support, Yarmouth
attacked at will and a Woodcock drive then brought Camidge to his knees before a terrific scramble in the home goalmouth after
a centre by Sewell resulted in Yarmouth’s first corner
after 13 minutes. Bartley won a second corner with a deflected shot and from this Palmer’s downward headed was cleared
off the Diss line. Woodcock was causing havoc on the Yarmouth
left and a pass inside to Bartley saw another shot go just over the bar, where an effort from Palmer also finished up a few
moments later.
The 23rd minute brought a Yarmouth
equaliser: with the home players caught upfield a quick break and cross by Woodcock found ROACH making ground
towards the back post and the ace-goalscorer made the task look so easy, 1-1.
Hayes was booked for a foul and a period of even play with few goal chances then followed
before Diss won their second corner after 32 minutes A third soon came as Hilton turned aside a Catchpole shot before Cussons
was brought down in the centre circle by Squires who was cautioned.
Diss regained the lead after 35 minutes when a clearance rebounded off a Yarmouth head to MOODY just outside the box and his 20 yard shot beat
Hilton. In reply, a Lamb shot was blocked with the lurking Bartley just short of the loose ball.
As play became heightened, Diss were awarded a free kick just outside the Yarmouth box but this was headed clear by Palmer. A similar situation at the other end saw
a Woodcock effort headed away. Then Ager challenged Camidge too fiercely in going for another Woodcock free kick and was cautioned.
Squires and Catchpole tussled outside the Diss box with the Diss man then needing treatment as the half came to a messy close.
In the third minute of added time, a Gomes shot won a fruitless corner for Diss.
HT 2-1
In the 50th minute a misplaced pass by Savage presented a chance to Gomes but
his volley flashed centimetres wide. Palmer became the third Yarmouth
player to be booked, this time apparently for blocking a free kick. After 54 minutes Yarmouth
took off the injured Ager and brought on Vide and a nice move down the right involving the substitute was undone by Gomes
who had back-tracked. Camidge took a long ball from Sewell with ease, and then the home ‘keeper went down to a Bartley
centre with Roach closing in.
Reed replaced Bartley in the 62nd minute but two minutes later Diss went further
ahead, a sliced clearance attempt from Sewell on the edge of the Yarmouth box falling straight to the waiting DEACON
who half-volleyed over Hilton.
Despite the setback, Yarmouth retained their composure and
attacking flair and a cross from Reed gave Yarmouth a corner
after a mistake by Camidge and Woodcock’s place kick was headed off the line. A Sewell run up the right led to another
corner from which ROACH fired over but the centre-forward was to get his reward moments later when,
after 69 minutes, a quick break got the better of the home defence and a cross from Reed was fired past Camidge from 15 yards.
Four minutes later, Roach was at it again: the Diss defence again went awol and ROACH
had the easiest of chances to put away for his hat-trick. Yarmouth,
for the second time in a fortnight, had recovered from a two goal deficit and the Barmy Army, who had been chanting Roach’s
name throughout the afternoon, were ecstatic.
It was now game on again and both teams went for the winner with gusto. Diss brought on
Partridge who had scored four in last year’s meeting but Deacon was still the main danger and Hilton brought off a brilliant
save from him, then one from Catchpole a minute later. Lamb was unlucky for Yarmouth
and deserved a goal for some enterprising attacking play.
With the game balanced on a knife-edge, Deacon had a “goal” ruled out for a
clear offside, and Hilton made a clean catch from a corner before moving away from his goal and missing the interception but
remarkably leaping backwards to claim the attempted cross back.
Yarmouth made their final substitution, Thompson for Woodcock, but there was to be no respite
for Diss as the new man immediately ran down the left and crossed dangerously only to find no-one in support.
Foley replaced Cussons for Diss but the Yarmouth
coup-de-gras was soon to follow. A weaving run from Vide led to him having a shot at Camidge: the Diss ‘keeper fumbled
his save and ROACH, following up, pounced to strike a glorious winner into the net. Roach has scored four
in a game once before for Yarmouth but that was in an 8-3
win, and the importance of this occasion was underlined as virtually the whole team converged on him with congratulations.
Roach's fourth goal was the 149th in his Yarmouth career and the travelling fans of course went into paroxysms of delight!
After the match Paul Tong said: “Stewart is absolute quality, and always has been.
I know we’ve had our differences in the past but I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it until I die
that Stewart is the best striker I’ve ever been involved with.
“But this result is also a testament to all the players’ character, resolve
and belief, and I give all credit to them. They knew they’d made mistakes in the first half and they said at half time
that they would put it right, and they did!
“Chris Squires had quite a good debut and his abilities on the ball, especially in
the second half, were magical!”
Attendance 150
