With the exception of a 1st minute effort from Josh Mayhew it was a strangely disjointed beginning to the game when Woodbridge struggled to find anything like their usual possession or tempo, Thetford took full advantage of abysmal defending to score in both the 16th & 18th minutes, firstly with an angled shot after Sam Lewis had dived in on the edge of the area & almost immediately when Carl Widdowson inexplicably allowed the ball to roll through to Lewis Rhodes, with a centre forward standing right behind him.

JACK SEVERY pulled a goal back for the home team with an angled shot which flew through the keeper after James Wright had pierced the Thetford defence, but there was little to suggest a comeback similar to the one last season when Woodbridge recovered from 3-0 down to win 4-3. In fact Rhodes had to tip a close range header over his crossbar & another effort drifted inches over Rhodes crossbar. For Woodbridge, Widdowson hit the side-netting & Wright blazed over after Severy’s free-kick had been parried.

Woodbridge kicked off the 2nd half in disarray & were immediately 3-1 down when a half-hit corner amazingly found its way through pathetic attempts at clearing the lines & the only true contact on the ball saw it fly into Rhodes’ net from close range. In what had been at times a laughable performance DANNY TATUM restored some credibility minutes later with a 30 yard strike to reduce the lead again.
Woodbridge at least sorted out some of their defensive mishaps & took the game to the visitors for next half hour with Tatum & Severy the biggest threats & it was no surprise when those two (+ Josh Mayhew) were involved in the 68th minute equalizer which was coolly taken by JACK SEVERY.

At this moment it looked likely that Woodbridge would repeat their come-from-behind victory of last season, but with Widdowson off the pitch with cramp Thetford put together a flowing move & made their extra man count to the full with an angled shot which was tapped in at the far post & despite having a go in the dying minutes, Woodbridge failed to grab what would in all honesty have been a largely-undeserved point.

Team: Rhodes, Fulker (Duzgun 70), Kempson, Wright (Rahman 65), Lewis (Hood-Wright 59), Widdowson, Rea, Mayhew, Jennings, Tatum & Severy.

With Walsham now out of reach the remainder of the season will see a number of the Under 16s being blooded on a regular basis while the 2nd year players will only figure in reserve team games, beginning with the visit of Bungay next Thursday!