Four wins in a row as Woodbridge defeat AFC Sudbury

Tuesday 7th August 2007

Woodbridge Town 2 AFC Sudbury 1

WOODBRIDGE staged a come-from-behind victory to make it four straight wins ahead of the new Ridgeons League season.

Lee O'Neill popped up with the winner in injury time to round off a very satisfactory pre-season campaign for the Woodpeckers, who wore their new strip for the 2007/08 campaign for the first time.

Their Ryman League Division One North opponents, who so cruelly missed out on promotion to the Premier Division after losing a penalty shoot-out at the end of last season, took just five minutes to open the scoring, when Gareth Heath seized on a loose ball to hit a crisp shot on the turn past Marcus Garnham.

With half an hour played Woodbridge created - and squandered - three decent chances in the space of four minutes. Allicion Blake won a header in the air and then struck the ball wide as it dropped before Aaron Churchyard put Ben Seaman away in the inside right channel and his shot went the wrong side of the near post.

Tony Boto, who displayed some neat touches on his home debut, then laid the ball off to Paul Hart but he dragged his shot just wide.

The visitors almost doubled their advantage five minutes before the break when Simon Head stretched to reach a cross and saw the ball come back off the inside of a post. Marcus Garnham then saved smartly low down to his right to thwart a Tommy Noble snapshot while at the other end Seaman latched on to a weak back header from Shane Wardley but Dave Walton saved his shot.

The second half saw Sudbury switch from a 3-5-2 formation to a flat back four and, consequently, Woodbridge found more space in midfield to pass the ball around.

A quadruple substitution on the hour sparked new life into the home side and it came as no surprise when they equalised 10 minutes later, Blake drilling home a low shot just inside Walton's right-hand post from 15 yards at the end of a good move. O'Neill then cut in from the right and saw his effort deflected over the bar before Blake hit a speculative dipping volley just wide.

As the game moved into injury time Marcis Garnham saved Noble's low shot after a cross from the left had eluded everyone before O'Neill pounced on a mistake by Walton, who let a through ball slip from his grasp, to net what proved to be the winner, although Marcus Garnham was required to make another save from Noble just before the end.

Woodbridge Team: Marcus Garnham, Aaran Sheppard, Mark Roper, Ben Miller Jamie Scales, Aaron Churchyard, Paul Hart, Ben Garnham, Ben Seaman, Tony Boto, Allicion Blake. Used subs: Grant Monaghan, Jon Bickers, Tom Trevivian, Lee O’Neill and Liam Hillyard.