Town Through To 4th Round Of The Vase

It’s no secret that the Town enjoy a good Vase win and this was no different, as they put Gorleston to the sword in a 4-2 win at Bell Close. The same score line when the sides met in the same round just three years ago.

The visitors looked the brighter of the two sides to begin with as they fired just wide of Brad Kirkwood’s goal just a few minutes into this Buildbase FA Vase Third Round tie.
However, despite soaking up a little bit of early pressure, Town asserted themselves on the game and were nearly in front when Ross Adams’ low cross just needed contact to turn it home.
Just a minute later though and the deadlock was broken, with Town the celebrating party. Scott Thomas, who made his first appearance for the club in over 10 years, delivered a teasing cross that was met by Sonny Newbury-Barr, who got enough on his effort to beat Jessup in the visitors goal! A good opener from a player who has been impressing since re-joining the club permanently from AFC Dunstable.
Town continued to be the dominant force in the game, as James Towell drove the reds forward from deep, before being disposed at the death.
Alfie Osborne entered the referee’s pocketbook inside the opening twenty minutes, as he was rewarded with a yellow card after his cynical foul.
The visitors did have the ball in the net however on 26 minutes, but the linesman had his flag up on the far side to deny them a leveller.
Four minutes later though, the ball was in the net up at the Clubhouse end and Town had doubled their advantage! Collier disposed the visitors who were attempting to play out from the back and played the ball into the path of Campbell, who finished with class, past the outstretched Jessup. Another goal in another FA Vase campaign for Ashton Campbell!
As the game restarted and with Town in the driving seat, it only took a few minutes for it to be flipped on its head! The visitors came back at Town and replied with two quick goals, to get the score-line level at 2-2.
The first saw Connor Ingram at the far post as a cross from a cleared corner found him in space to side foot past Kirkwood and into the bottom corner.
Just seven minutes later and the second arrived. Questions of an initial offside were waved away and Ingram broke down the left and saw his low cross blocked by Murphy, but the block looped up and ended up in the back of Town’s net.
How quickly can a tie change?
Or, how quickly can it change again? Just four minutes later and the Town had put themselves back in-front! Collier found himself in acres of space behind the Gorleston rearguard and kept his cool as he chipped the on-rushing goalkeeper to make it 3-2, with the game in added time of the first half!
An action packed first half was met by a well battled second as Town looked to progress into the Last 32 of the competition. A competition that has seen Town reach the quarter finals twice in the last 3 seasons.
Gorleston looked to get themselves back on level terms and applied plenty of pressure throughout the second period, but saw a headed effort blocked and turned behind, as well as a smart Brad Kirkwood stop denying the lively, Henderson.
Alfie Osborne, who was on a booking, was replaced by Brian Foulger, seven minutes into the second half.
Both sides were creating chances, with Town looking the more likely as the tempo began to change hands. Ashton Campbell fizzed an effort into the gloves of Jessup, before Collier tried his luck with an audaciously attempted lob.
On 68 minutes, Kirkwood was called into action when he had to make a smart save to deny the visitors a deflected goal!
With the game entering the last twenty minutes, the 150 sold out crowd at Bell Close could sense a goal was coming...
And what a goal it was.
Town gave themselves a two-goal cushion once again, when Ashton Campbell’s perfectly weighted ball to the edge of the area was met sweetly by the boot of Scott Thomas’, who delightfully half-volleyed a strike into the top left corner! A brilliant goal from the man making his Bell Close return!
With Town looking to see this one out, Carl Resch entered the fray, replacing James Towell.
The visitors once again had the ball in the back of the net, but this time, they were adjudged to have fouled Brad Kirkwood in the process.
Sonny Newbury-Barr was the next to make way, this time for Ben Pattie, who joined proceedings with a little over five minutes to play.
Scott Thomas capped off his day with a yellow card as he stopped the visitors breaking, after a quickly taken free-kick.
Ashton Campbell had the chance to add a second goal to his personal tally and sublime performance for the day, when he got in behind the defence but his low shot was met by the hands of Jessup!
The visitors blazed a couple of efforts from inside the Town box when the game was in stoppage time, but they were powerless in their efforts and saw Town progress into Round 4, the last 32 stage of the competition.
Town are also, the only team left from the Spartan league in the Buildbase FA Vase, after 3 SSML sides lost out on penalties as well as 1-0 defeat.
However, despite Town’s win on Saturday afternoon, during the game we learnt that we are now in Tier 4 for a minimum of the next two weeks.
The SSML has announced the suspension of the leagues under the current guidelines and we will only restart when we are given the green light from the FA.
We are delighted to be through in the Vase and look forward to the draw on Monday, however, more importantly, we’d like to wish every single one of our supporters a very happy Christmas despite the circumstances. We hope everyone stays safe and here’s to being all back together with no restrictions in 2021! Cheers!