Haverhill Rovers 2 Walsham Le Willows 1

Following Saturday’s first point of the season, Haverhill went into this game looking for a positive performance and result to turn their season around.

The home team started bright and looked comfortable in possession as they played some good attacking football, with the front three of Alleyne, Longley and Weaver looking lively, as they worked the Walsham defence hard in the early stages.  The first chance of the game fell to Haverhill as Alleyne beat the left back and delivered a great cross that Weaver just failed to make contact with in the box; whilst at the other end Walsham’s main threat looked to be set piece deliveries into the box but they found Archer’s handling assured in the home goal to rule this threat out.

Rovers continued to have the better possession in the first half and created a number of half chances that kept the visitors keeper, Craig Brand, busy with a number of comfortable saves.

Again the Rovers started the second half strong and forced a number of early corners and it was from one of these corners that they took a deserved lead when Shinn’s corner was met by Alleyne that bought a good save out of Brand only to see the ball fall to Nick Wilderspin who fired the ball home to break the deadlock.

After the goal the game became more open as Walsham were forced into playing a higher line as they went in search of a goal but Rovers looked very solid off the ball both in defence and midfield and moving forwards the home team still looked the bigger threat as they created a number of chances with Alleyne, Longley, Weaver and Baker all going close to increasing the lead before a good through ball from Shinn saw Alleyne power past the Walsham defence and double the lead with a well taken goal into the bottom corner.

The visitors were then reduced to ten men after a foul on Weaver who was clean through on goal but to their credit they continued to push forward and were awarded a last minute penalty that was converted by Andrew Wood to give them a late consultation that did little to tarnish a good home performance that saw Rovers win their first game of the season.

TEAM: Archer, Kicks, Gardner, Shinn, Farrant, Wilderspin, Newnes, Baker, Weaver, Alleyne, Longley

SUBS NOT USED: Moody, Sigler, Shulver