Beccles Town FC opened their friendlies programme with quality wins for both reserves and first team.The first team travelled to SIL league champions Old Newton for their opening friendly on Saturday with several regulars missing but re-enforced by some new signings who looked likely to become good first-team squad members.

Beccles Town FC opened their friendlies programme with quality wins for both reserves and first team.

The first team travelled to SIL league champions Old Newton for their opening friendly on Saturday with several regulars missing but re-enforced by some new signings who looked likely to become good first-team squad members.

Old Newton dominated the game with good attacking football but a good defensive display from Beccles Town, combined with several excellent saves from Cable, restricted their final chances.

The visitors opened the scoring when Barnard, chasing a long ball, reached it just before the home keeper and the ball rolled into an un-guarded goal.

Old Newton increased the pressure and Beccles were defiant but lucky in holding onto their lead until 30 minutes when Old Newton equalised through a fine left-foot finish.

The game continued to be very competitive with some fierce tackling from both sides but no further score, and half-time came at 1-1.

The second half continued with both defences dominating, until the 75th minute when Matthew King was put through by Harman to chip the keeper from 20 yards, re-establishing a 2-1 lead.

More chances came and went on both sides until, in the last minute of the game, Ant Martin stretched the lead to 3-1 when he rounded the keeper to slot home.

Straight from the kick-off Old Newton capitalised on a defensive mistake to bring the final score to 3-2, immediately followed by the final whistle.

All in all, an excellent workout for Beccles Town with some impressive debuts which must have been very encouraging for manager Mick Broxup.

Beccles now look forward to the Jack Constance Cup match against Norwich City Youth, which will be played on Monday evening, August 9 with a 6.30 pm kick-off, a chance to see some of the Canaries' young stars.

This will be followed by a friendly against another top SIL team, Felixstowe United, on Saturday, August 14 (kick-off 2.30 pm), closely followed by their first Anglian Combination Premier Division game at Acle United on Tuesday, August 17 (kick-off 6.30pm).

The reserves travelled to Scole for a competitive match which was very affected by the sloping pitch. Scole attacked down the slope for the first half and exerted enormous pressure on the Beccles defence but were unable to convert their dominance into a lead.

Beccles took the lead when King robbed his full back and crossed to Remblance, who calmly slotted home. Scole equalised just before half-time.

In the second half, with Beccles playing down the slope, it was a much more even game and Beccles started to play their normal passing game, making the Scole defence work very hard.

However, it was Scole who scored next to take the lead, but Beccles worked harder to dominate.

This eventually paid off when Heaney was put through to net easily - and this was followed 10 minutes later by King chipping the home keeper from 25 yards after being put through by Heaney.

The last 15 minutes were battled out without any further score to give a final score line of Scole 2, Beccles Town Reserves 3.

The reserves' second friendly was on Tuesday against Halesworth Town where, after a fairly even, well-contested game, Beccles Town Reserves ran out 2-1 winners with goals from Luke Bailey and Pip Norton.