Magpies Win Over Dragons Is Not Black & White

Wivenhoe Town 1 Dereham Town 4

Wivenhoe Town: 1) Glenn Morrison (Matt Groves 46) 2) Liam Dadds 3) Miguel Nydam 4) Ben Lampon © 5) Ben Parkin 6) Ryan Brown 7) Mike Schofield (Luke Payne 64) 8) Tim Dennis 9) Ray Catchpole (Lewis Ayton 78) 10) Anthony Wright 11) Marley Spindler. Unused Subs: 12) Robert Clarke 15)Ben Connell
Dereham Town: 1) Andrew Wilton 2) Oliver Willis© 3) Luke Hannant 4) Sam Borrer (Kyle Downes 86) 5) Dan Morphew 6)Adam Gustersson 7) Aaron Kay 8) Adam Smith 9) Luke Tuttle (Matt Powley 58) 10) Scott Roberts 11) Ryan Hawkins (Craig Bussens 48) . Unused Subs: 16) Jay Eastoe-Smith 17) Matt Howard
Referee: W Norcutt Assistants: J Whittaker and P Wilson

Two Dereham goals in each half left the Dragons looking for three wins in their last three matches to stay up on merit, but maintained Dereham’s four point lead at the top of the table. However, the score-line flattered the Magpies who can be thankful that Wivenhoe missed a simple chance when the score was 3-1; it certainly would have livened up the final 15 minutes.
On a bright, but slightly chilly afternoon at Broad Lane, Dereham kicked off towards the clubhouse and university. The opening half hour was fairly even as both sides struggled to produce much coherent football. It took until the ninth minute for either side to produce a shot, but then Dereham’s Smith had an effort deflected away for the first corner of the game. The resultant kick was delivered to the near post where the Nordic sounding Gustersson headed over the crossbar. Wivenhoe then got their act together and produced a fine passing move which ended with the ball being played out to Mike Schofield on the right. Scofe found himself in a bit of space, but so did his shot, which went way over the crossbar, stand and possibly Clacton.
The second corner of the game arrived on 15 minutes and again went to Dereham. Two minutes later a back-pass from a Magpies defender produced a somewhat iffy clearance from goalkeeper Wilton, but the Dragons could not take advantage. A minute later Tuttle rather amusingly charged into Glenn Morrison and predictably ended up in a heap on the ground. Tuttle then also fouled Ben Parkin as he appeared to want to demonstrate that he could ‘mix it’ with the biggest players in the Wivenhoe side.
Roberts produced a rather feeble 30 yard shot for Dereham on 23 minutes and then a minute later a throw to Wivenhoe resulted in Ben Parkin lumping the ball into the penalty area where Wilson fumbled it badly, almost giving Wivenhoe a corner, but not quite. A minute after that Morphew produced a much better piece of defending as he flicked the ball away from Anthony Wright, after a decent passing move. Had Morphew not intervened Anthony would have had a shooting opportunity inside the box.
Whilst Dereham were slightly the neater and more effective team in the first half an hour, overall there was not much in it. It was somewhat unexpected then when Borrer’s shot from the edge of the box hit a post and rebounded across the face of the goal where Tuttle headed it in unopposed. Borrer had the chance to make it two nil on 33 minutes when he was put through, but Glenn Morrison came off his line to clear the ball at the edge of the penalty area. Glenn was in action again a minute later as a deep cross found Hawkins at the far post. Glenn threw himself to his right to get a hand to Hawkins’ header, but could not prevent it from entering the net to double Dereham’s lead.
With nine minutes to go until half-time a rare Wivenhoe attack was foiled by a questionable offside decision against Anthony Wright, who appeared to run from behind the defender. Three minutes later referee Mr Norcutt awarded Dereham a free-kick about 30 yards from goal. Tuttle took the kick and sent a dipping, swerving effort over the defensive wall, and into the stand. The final notable action of the half saw a low cross by Dereham captain Willis deflected away for the Magpies’ third corner of the game, but Wivenhoe defended it capably.
The start of the second half saw Glenn Morrison replaced by Matt Groves in goal after Glenn succumbed to a long-term injury. Matt was not required to make a real save until the 52nd minute when he had little chance of keeping out a header from Tuttle after a cross from the right flank. It briefly seemed a question of how many Dereham might score as they won another corner two minutes later and then a minute after that Smith volleyed across the face of the goal. But Wivenhoe recovered well and began to piece together a number of flowing passing moves. Then on the hour Liam Dadds sent a deep diagonal ball into the penalty area; Mike Schofield brought the ball down and laid it back to Marley Spindler at the edge of the box, who placed the ball deftly into the top right-hand corner of Wilton’s goal to make the score 1-3. It was the Dragons’ first goal against Dereham since April 2010, so it probably should have counted double.
Dereham quickly came back at the Dragons, earning a free-kick on the left hand side of the box; the kick was blocked by the defensive wall, but at the expense of a corner from which substitute Bussens fired over the crossbar. The Dragons were now matching Dereham and began to carry a bit of goal threat as they managed to penetrate the Dereham penalty area. On 69 minutes Ray Catchpole got to the by-line, but his low cross was blocked and then cleared as was Luke Payne’s 22 yard shot shortly afterwards. At the other end a cross from the right was met by Kay with a volley which drew a fine diving save from Matt Groves. Liam Dadds was harshly penalised on 74 minutes on the edge of the penalty area, but again the defensive wall blocked the free-kick and the shot on the rebound from Kay fell conveniently for Matt Groves.
As the game entered the final 15 minutes of normal time the Dereham defence looked a little jittery as a ball into the box was inadvertently headed goal wards by a defender. Ray Catchpole ran on to the loose ball and had possession about 7 yards from goal; his shot was blocked but the ball came back to him and he was able to deliver a square pass to Luke Payne at the far post. Luke had time and space, but chose to hit the ball first time and contrived to send his shot beyond the post, when he had looked odds-on to score. It really was a sitter that had been missed.
With the game into the final 10 minutes, Wivenhoe continued to match Dereham. On 84 minutes, Liam Dadd’s free-kick from the half way line into the box was headed goal wards by Morphew and Wilson had to react sharply to prevent embarrassment for the Magpies. Sixty seconds later however, Powley bore down on the Wivenhoe goal on the left and completed the scoring for Dereham with a low shot beyond Matt Groves .
The fourth goal flattered Dereham but Wivenhoe were not bowed and with four minutes left Tim Dennis received the ball with his back to goal about eight yards out. Tim turned well and got in a cross to the near post. Luke Payne looked well placed to head the ball past Wilton, but inexcusably he shied away from the ball under a challenge and let it hit his back and the chance was lost. That was the last opportunity of the game and with not much more than 90 seconds time added on played, referee Mr Norcutt called time.
In many ways this match was a copy of the game earlier in the season at Dereham. The Magpies were undeniably the better team, but Wivenhoe nevertheless made them work for the points and came close to scoring more than just the one goal. The Dragons were always going to struggle to get anything from this match, but can be happy that they at least gave Dereham a half decent game, even if they might have defended a little better at times and taken the few chances that they did create.