Team: Elsom; Cooney; Archer; Christie; Wickson; Marshall; Tripp; Read; Dimuccio; Portaluri; Church. Subs: Burgoyne.

Half-time: 3-1
Full-time: 5-5

Goal scorers: Portaluri (4); Church

The boys finished the league season drawing a ten goal thriller away to a vastly improved Needham Phoenix and thus secured their unbeaten run in the league. The team that played deserve a great deal of credit, particularly as several boys were again asked to play out of position to cover for absentees and also because unavailability also resulted in only one substitute and that was goalie Emile Burgoyne, who played much of the second half as an auxiliary striker.

With first choice centre-halves, Khaled Abdel-Aziz and Ben Hopkins not available, right-back Ashley Archer and striker, Jack Christie, stepped into this difficult position. With substitute defender, Miles Kekwick crying off at the last minute, this also meant that full backs Gus Cooney and Ewan Wickson were going to get no respite either. The game began with the defence struggling to come to terms with their new positions and the bounce of the ball and only Ewan looked comfortable in the opening exchanges and it was, therefore, no surprise when Needham took the lead when one of the opposition strikers latched onto a long kick from his goalkeeper and dispatched it by the advancing Joe Elsom, who was to have another superb game in goal, despite conceding five goals. At this stage in the game the team looked nervy and positionally several boys were struggling, but gradually a number of boys stepped up to the challenge with Ewan and Giorgio Dimuccio, assisted by Sam Tripp and Casper Church, taking control of the left-hand side of midfield. Jack Christie was also settling to his task and he was also unlucky to see a header from a corner go narrowly wide. However the equaliser came after good work by Kieron Marshall on the right of midfield and his carefully weighted pass set Laurence Portaluri free and he added his 42nd of the season with his usual power and precision.

The equaliser gave the whole team belief and with Joe Elsom bossing his area and collecting any ball launched down field, Woodbridge began to dominate. Matthew Read and Sam Tripp were scrapping for everything in the centre of the park and Giorgio and Ewan were opening up the left-hand side of attack and stretching the opposition defence. It was not long before Woodbridge took control and Laurence latched onto Jack’s long ball to give the boys the lead. Ewan had a chance to extend our lead from a corner, but leant back at the last moment and blasted the ball just over the crossbar. However a momentum was building and Caspar Church picked up Laurence’s clever flick and held off a defender before beating the keeper with a well-placed shot to give Woodbridge a 3-1 half-time lead.

The second-half began with Needham putting the Woodbridge defence under heavy pressure and keeper Joe Elsom made three vital saves, including one brilliant take low to his near post and another when he raced off his line to block an onrushing attacker and when he was beaten left-back Ewan Wickson got back to hold off an opponent and clear off the line. Having survived this initial onslaught Jack Christie launched another long ball and Laurence scored his third and extended the team’s lead. Needham responded immediately when their left-wing exposed hesitancy on the right of the Woodbridge defence and gave Joe no chance with a rasping drive into the top corner. The crowd were certainly getting its moneys worth!

Substitute goalie, Emile Burgoyne replaced Caspar Church to get his first outing on pitch and he was then involved in our third goal laying the ball off to Laurence just inside the Needham half. Laurence had the vision to see the opposition keeper off his line and he lobbed the ball into the far corner. This goal was significant as a number of Woodbridge players were tiring, having worked hard to close the opposition down and with Needham able to bring on substitutes at will it was always going to be difficult to hold out and so it proved. The opposition left-wing was causing untold problems and when he was fouled, Needham pulled a goal back. Ewan blocked the first shot, but while two Woodbridge defenders left the bouncing ball to each other a Needham forward smashed the ball goal wards and although Joe got a hand to it he wasn’t quite able to prevent it from crossing the line. Caspar then replaced Kieron and although Laurence shot narrowly wide and Giorgio was still creating opportunities down the left flank the balance of play was now firmly with Needham and two goals through the right-back channel made it all square and set up a very nervy final five minutes and Woodbridge survived a free-kick on the edge of the area when Jack, who had again worked tirelessly to cover for the absence of Khaled and Ben, brought down the right wing.

This was a superb effort from the boys to preserve their unbeaten league record, particularly given the loss of players to injury and illness and a representative team. Joe deserves special mention and although he let in five without him the unbeaten run would have almost certainly come to an end.