Woodbridge Town Football Club

.
 RIDGEONS LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION
.
Woodbridge Town 2 Norwich United 2
Saturday 05th April 2008
 

A POINT apiece was a fair result as these two sides met for the second time in a month.


Woodbridge, who turned a half-time deficit into a second-half lead, conceded an equaliser six minutes from time and were then grateful to a fine Marcus Garnham save four minutes into injury time for preserving their point.

Luke Read and Ben Seaman were both out injured, so Gerard Nash and Aaron Churchyard, both unavailble for the midweek trip to King's Lynn, returned to the side with Simon Peddie coming in at right back and Stefan Marsh dropping to the bench.

The visitors stunned Woodbridge by taking a first-minute lead when Steve Shipley's shot deflected off Ben Miller and looped up and over the stranded Marcus Garnham into the net.
Woodbridge were making too many misplaced passes to get a foothold in the game and almost fell further behind in the 28th minute when a Paul Atkins shot was fingertipped by Marcus Garnham onto the underside of the crossbar and came out, before Martin Goulder sprung the offside trap and should have done better than lob wide of the goal.

Marcus Garnham got down to block Nathan Page's shot following a one-two with Shaun Bammant and from the resultant corner Bammant's goal-bound header caused confusion in the Woodbridge penalty area before the ball was cleared.

The half ended with Adam Smith shooting wide following another Norwich corner, and the visitors were worthy of their interval lead, with Woodbridge's only real effort of note in the opening period coming from a Jon Bickers shot from 25 yards which was straight at Matthew Hill.

Just as Norwich had scored in the first minute of the first half so Woodbridge equalised within sixty seconds of the resumption when a good move down the right wing ended with Peddie's low cross into the area being turned into his own net by visiting defender Craig Roberts under pressure from Lee O'Neill.

A clash of heads involving Norwich duo Adrian Ager and Page and O'Neill led to O'Neill being replaced in the 55th minute by Paul Hart, who had missed the King's Lynn match through illness. Hart had only been on the pitch three minutes when he scored with a well-struck shot across the keeper to put Woodbridge ahead.

Bammant headed wide before Woodbridge passed up a gilt-edged opportunity to wrap up the points in the 71st minute when Nash played the ball in behind the defence and Hart dribbled round Hill but it was Allicion Blake whose shot hit the outside of the post instead of finding an empty net.

Atkins shot over the bar at the other end after holding off Grant Monaghan and then Miller just failed to connect with Nash's curling free-kick.

With six minutes of normal time remaining Adam Ferguson released Page wide on the right and his ball into the box by picked out Atkins arriving at the far post to sidefoot home the equaliser, before the same player was denied a late, late winner.

Woodbridge Town: Marcus Garnham, Simon Peddie, Grant Monaghan, Ben Garnham, Mark Roper, Ben Miller, Gerard Nash, Jon Bickers, Allicion Blake, Lee O'Neill (sub Paul Hart 55 mins), Aaron Churchyard. Unused subs: Stefan Marsh, Sean Rea, Aaran Sheppard, Jamie Scales.
 


 © WTFC 2007

Terms of Use