Serious injury mars important victory for Earsham
Earsham's Connor Girling in good spirits after his successful operation. Picture: Amy Prentice. - Credit: Archant
Earsham maintained their position of second in the division with a hard-fought victory against their promotion rivals but the day was marred by a serious injury to a key member of the squad.
Manager Dave Reeder was able to name the same defence that had faced Hingham the previous week with Tom Ramsay at right back, Justin Doughty partnering Kev Riches in the centre and Matt Goodfellow at left back, all in front of goalkeeper Adam Honeywood. James Goodfellow was alongside Alfie Seamons in central midfield with Connor Girling and Alex Perrin providing the width. Dan Smith partnered Shaun Flint in attack with Nick Kent, Josh Edge and Dan Lowe all returning to the substitutes’ bench.
The early stages were even as both teams cancelled each other out. It was Costessey who were the first to settle and were unlucky not to take the lead when a shot from 20 yards left Honeywood stranded but came back off of the bar.
As the half wore on Earsham began to find their feet and they took the lead after 30 minutes when a long Riches free kick was flicked on by Seamons into Girling’s path. His volley seemed to be dealt with by the keeper but somehow the ball found its way in via the far post.
Earsham doubled their lead midway through the second half when Flint robbed a defender on the halfway line, and, as he broke clear, he kept his composure to square to Perrin who finished well past the keeper for his second goal of the season.
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Costessey threw caution to the wind in search of a way back into the game but were unable to trouble the home defence.
However, in the 88th minute the game was brought to a premature end, when after a heavy challenge on Girling resulted in him requiring an ambulance to be called and the referee finished the game early.
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It was later confirmed that he had broken his leg and dislocated his ankle, which required an operation. All at Earsham FC would like to wish him a quick and speedy recovery.
A fantastic result that gives Earsham’s promotion push a real boost with only six games to go and a third clean sheet in as many games but one that will unfortunately be remembered for the wrong reasons.
This weekend, Earsham travel to Wymondham Reserves, kick-off 2.30pm.
