The first action of the game should have resulted in a penalty to the home team, but Woodbridge escaped as they did a few minutes later when a gilt-edged chance was blazed over, but despite a difficult surface, Woodbridge soon got the ball down & passed it around with quality & began to cut through the defence.

PETE RICHARDSON marked his return from injury by converting Sean Rea’s through ball & the lead was doubled when Liam Hillyard set up DANNY TATUM to beat the home keeper at his near post. There were plenty of other opportunities too as Rea fired wastefully into the side-netting, a cross from Jack Severy hit the crossbar, Tatum fired over from close range & Hillyard had a header ruled out for a ‘debatable’ foul as Woodbridge threatened an avalanche of goals at one end, but were regularly stretched at the other end & were fortunate to concede just the one goal before half-time, following a huge goalmouth scramble.

Needham began the 2nd half with a series of corners & crosses, which Tom Ross continually dealt with & it wasn’t too long before Woodbridge started to create chances with Rea amazingly missing from 3 yards after Severy had rounded the keeper & squared the ball.
The miss wasn’t costly though as almost immediately Tatum found JOSH MAYHEW with a slide-rule pass & he fired across the keeper inside the far post. SEAN REA made amends for his two earlier misses when he latched onto Hillyard’s pass to beat the keeper at his near post from a tight angle.
The game appeared to be fizzling out until a spate of 3 goals in the final 3 minutes;
Patient passing across the Needham penalty area ended when JOSH MAYHEW produced an exquisite chip over the keeper into the opposite top corner. Ben Garnham & Mayhew then forced a great double save from the keeper. Moments later Needham caught Woodbridge on the counter-attack & punished a rare error from Ross to reduce the arrears only for JOSH MAYHEW to cap the game in injury time with an astonishing long-range volley, which dipped over the stranded keeper to complete one of the most amazing hat-tricks anybody could wish to see!

Team: Ross, Rea, Baalham, Toumi, Widdowson, Kempson, Hillyard, Garnham, Richardson (Mayhew 45), Tatum & Severy (Nicklin 73).

Next Saturday, Woodbridge Town Reserves travel to face unbeaten Walsham Le Willows, who defeated us 5-3 in the League Cup back in October.