Beccles in next round

Beccles Town 1, Norwich St Johns 0

Beccles Town progressed to the quarter-finals of the Mummery Cup last Saturday. Their reward for their victory will be tough away trip to Blofield United or Corton.

Beccles were forced into changes. With Barnard unavailable, stalwart defender Neil Mcmorran returned.

Beccles also had new signing Damian Bensley replacing Andy Woods, who moved down to substitute.

The home side were having the best of the early exchanges with Remblance and Martin causing problems for the Saints’ rearguard.

The Beccles defence had to be on their mettle as the visitors’ speedy wingers had them at full stretch. Play seemed to be confined to midfield with both sides struggling to gain the initiative.

Half-time arrived with neither side really having a clear-cut chance to take the lead.

Beccles were in need of a spark as their defence began to cope quite easily with the sporadic St Johns attacks.

The midfield, with Waterman becoming increasingly prominent, were steadily building up pressure.

Beccles threatened a goal, and when it arrived it came from a quite unlikely source.

Captain Tom Roberts saw an effort cleared to him some 40 yards out.

He spotted the goalkeeper off his line and unleashing a curling effort that seemed to be heading for the top corner before the keeper, in attempting to push the ball over, helped it into the roof of the net.

The home side had a tremendous chance to put the game to bed when top scorer Alan Remblance was clear through but saw his lob over the keeper drift over the bar as well, with the goal gaping.

Beccles introduced substitutes Malone and Storey to beef up the midfield, and the game ended with the visitors pressing for an equaliser.

The match was sponsored by BFS Enterprise Ltd.

Tomorrow, Beccles travel to Norwich to take on St Andrews, kick-off 2pm.

Meanwhile, the reserves are at home to North Walsham, kick-off 2pm, at College Meadow.