Caister 3 Cromer Town 6

Cromer made the trip to Caister for their penultimate away game of the season. There were multiple changes to the squad with Eves, Halliday, Acheson and Harwood all unavailable from the midweek victory. Kieran Patel was also missing having moved to Diss Town.
Matthew Warnes, Steve Jordan, Chris Sutton, Martin Addison and Amos Bailey all came into the starting XI whilst new signings Tom Rolfe and Paul WInterbone were on the bench.
As the Crabs did on Tuesday night they grabbed an early goal. In just the 2nd minute the ball was played over for Michael Warnes who then dropped it back for Sam Grady whose shot was pushed away by the keeper. The ball back to Warnes who then picked out Bailey with his cross and the Cromer forward headed home.
After ten minutes the visitors made it 2-0. Cromer won a free kick on the left which Karl Horton then delivered into the box. Malloy in the Caister goal misjudged the flight and got caught under the ball, and Darren Terrington made no mistake to head into the net.
The Cromer no. 9 had another effort a couple of minutes later. Bailey chased down Sutton’s clearance and then knocked the ball down to Terrington, but he fired over from the edge of the box.
The home side then had a brilliant five minute period that saw them get back on level terms. Their first goal came when a deep free kick floated over the Cromer defence and was put back across goal by Thomas Rowley and Ashley Kinghad the simplest of tap ins.
Moments later the equaliser came when Jamie Long picked up possession. He then turned and evaded two challenges with ease to make space for himself before firing past Davies from the edge of the box.
Having let their two goal lead slip the Crabs were keen to regain the advantage. Ben Graver’s free kick was comfortably saved by Malloy. Then after some good play around the box the ball ended up with Graver whose curling effort went just over.
Then at the other end Davies was called into action to deny Matt Lines after the ball had dropped kindly to the Caister midfielder. From the counter attack that followed Michael Warnes crossed for Terrington but he couldn’t find the desired connection to trouble the keeper.
In the final ten minutes of the half the away side had three attacks and scored 3 goals to seemingly secure the victory with a half remaining.
Cromer regained the lead in the 38th minute when from a corner the ball dropped to Jordan who fired goalwards and the ball struck Baily and found its way into the back of the net.
From he next attack the visitors grabbed their fourth when Sutton picked out Bailey at the back post with a ball from deep and Bailey found the roof of the net with a superb diving head to complete a first half hat trick for the Cromer front man.
Then in the final minute of the first half it was 5-2. Graver played a superb ball with the outside of his right boot for Matthew Warnes. Kepper Malloy came out into nomansland and Warnes put the ball back towards goal and Sam Grady came in from the left side to finish into an empty net.
A very entertaining first half of football came to a conclusion. The second half didn’t quite deliver the same entertainment in terms of efforts at goal but the crowd did still witness some good spells of passing football.
In the 70th minute the home side did pull a goal back when a delivery into the box saw keeper Davies put under pressure from numerous bodies, legally so according to the official and the ball dropped in the six yard box and Long finished from close range.
Minutes later sloppiness in the Cromer defence was almost punished as a cross picked out Ashley King who connected brilliantly with his volley but his strike came back off the post. This saw the end of an unlikely comeback in the closing stages and with five minutes remaining Cromer sealed the points.
Grady got in behind the Caister defence and looked to pick out Terrington but his cross was cut out and put behind. From the resulting corner Terrington flicked the ball on at the near post and found Winterbone at the back post who fired home to secure a 6-3 victory for the North Norfolk side.
Considering the multiple changes in personnel to the side and the bobbly playing surface the Crabs were very impressive in the quality of football that they played, and in the first half in particular they were particularly clinical in front of goal.
Back to back wins in the week for the Crabs who are without a game this coming weekend and return to action next Tuesday night at Cabbell Park when Reepham Town visit in a 7.30p.m. kick off.
Caister team: Malloy, Turner, Bartram, Lines, Rowley, Newman, Butler, Nichols, King, Long, Ward. Subs: Blake, Hack, Fennel-Farman.
Cromer team: Davies, Warnes, Addison, Sutton, Jordan (Rolfe), Graver, Warnes (Lewandowski), Horton, Terrington, Bailey (Winterbone), Grady.