1st Team fall to narrow defeat away at League leaders Caister

Scole travelled to the coast to face early league leaders and much improved Caister impeded by the absence of 4 regular players. This meant a debut for former Long Stratton Keeper Sam Palmer and going with a 2 man bench of teenagers Ewan Chamberlain & Tom Peck.
Caister started the game very fast and their formation and movement caused Scole lots of problems. During a Caister attack early on Luke Martin was very harshly adjudged to have handled the ball (a VAR call if there ever was one?) and Caister calmly stroked home the penalty. Shortly after Scole made some tactical adjustments to prevent the Caister DM from receiving the ball and immediately the game changed. This caused Caister to hit the ball longer and Scole immediately looked more dangerous on the break. Just before half-time they got their reward when full back Tom Davey won the ball high up the pitch following a loose pass from the home side's centre back and set winger Dave Coleman free on the left. Coleman beat his marker to deliver a cross into striker Jake McDowall who finished with the keeper stranded.
The second half began with Scole in the driving seat and pushing forward, sub Ewan Chamberlain who had replaced the injured Alex Gardiner in midfield showed his class when he came close with a rasping free kick from outside the 18 yard box. Slowly Caister began to respond to the Scole threat and the game became very competitive. To competitive for the Officials liking who inexplicably showed 3 yellow cards to each side during the course of what wasn't a dirty game. The home side retook the lead when a player just managed to free himself from his marker at a corner and powered his header into the corner of the net. Scole battled on for the equaliser and Ash Baxter shaved a post with a good effort but Caister held on . A good advert for the Anglian Com Premier Division with both sides showing good quality and although its little consolation to Scole the home side conceded that this was their hardest game this season!
So once again Scole's performance was better than the result but they have shown that they can compete with one the league's most fancied teams and surely their reward must come soon?
Player of the Match was Central Defender Reece Lanchester who had a very good return after a recent eye injury.
Next Week we face another highly fancied side in last season's top placed side Waveney Fc (14:30 ko at Ransome Ave)