Doddington's free kick seals first home win for Black Dogs

The Black Dogs achieved their first home goal - and first home win - of the season on Saturday as a single strike was enough to edge past Gorleston Reserves.

The visitors came with a 100 per cent record in the Anglian Combination division one so far, but Bungay were well worth the three points and manager Travis Manning was pleased with the performance.

He said: “For the first 35 minutes we controlled the game.

"We let them back in but it was our level dropping rather than their’s improving.

“They went down to 10 men in the second half but I think we would still have won if they had kept at 11.

"Our back line was immensely strong and resilient and Brandon Ling in goal only had one serious save to make.

"They were an energetic side but we limited their football and we now have 11 points from seven games.”

From the start Bungay took the game to the Greens and Jack Child got in a good low cross which a defender reached as Alex Shreeve was about to pounce.

In the 16th minute Kale Brown fired narrowly wide after another good build-up. Then Shreeve had a close-range effort blocked.

Towards half-time Gorleston had a couple of chances, notably when a hooked shot from a corner hit the top of the bar, and Ling had to make a good save with his feet.

For Bungay Daniel McDonald fired a low drive narrowly wide from 25 yards.

Four minutes into the second half Gorleston had a player sent off for a bad tackle on James Wightman and had another player sent to the sin-bin for protesting.

Bungay took full advantage of playing against nine men as Connor Donnington sent in a long free-kick from the left and it eluded everyone to finish in the back of the net.

Connor Doddington hit Bungay's winner on Saturday. (Image: Shaun Cole)

The Black Dogs continued to be on top and substitute Kye Williams fired narrowly over on the turn, and Thomas Daniels put a header on to the roof of the bar from Jackson Williams’ corner.

Bungay had a let off in the 80th minute when a player raced clear but completely mis-controlled his second touch for the ball to run harmlessly out of play.

Kye Williams and Oli Alexander combined to set up McDonald for a shot which was blocked and Valeri da Costa had a far post chance he could not take.

In a nervous finale Gorleston saw a powerful header from a corner just clear the bar.

Team: B Ling, T Daniels, J Wightman, J Williams, A Bray, D McDonald (V Da Costa), C Doddington (D McDonald), K Brown (C Doddington), J Child (K Williams), A Martens (O Alexander), A Shreeve.

On Saturday, Bungay take a break from league action as they visit Brandon Town in the first round of the Suffolk Senior Cup (2pm).