Beccles Town travelled to Wroxham Reserves with a young side, including some of the Under 18 regulars for this important league encounter.

Wroxham opened up at pace and soon had Beccles back on the defensive with some well-constructed play. On five minutes Neil Hurren was set free but was caught offside and play switched to the other end, bringing Danny Cable into action.

On 15 minutes Beccles created another swift break, but Hurren’s final effort was diverted for a corner from which Beccles were unable to benefit.

On 28 minutes Gill escaped down the right wing and his cross was well met by Hurren’s head but tipped over by the home keeper.

Wroxham then set up a good counter-attack and Cable was again called into action to save the day. On 38 minutes Luke Bailey, who had swapped wings with Kyle Godbold, made a good run down the right and his deep cross was acrobatically hooked from behind by James Gill to open the scoring for Beccles.

Wroxham redoubled their efforts but Boyd and Glover at the heart of the Beccles defence stood up well and kept the Wroxham strikers at bay until the end of the half.

Wroxham started the second half with all-out attack and the Beccles defence was under severe pressure but responded well with George Brown and Callum Grimmer covering almost every part of the pitch, but also needing several point-blank saves from Cable to keep the sheet clean.

On 55 minutes Wroxham launched another good attack but their striker shot wide when clean through. Callum Read replaced a tiring Gill, who had been a constant thorn in the Wroxham defence. On 78 minutes Hurren was set free down the middle but came off worst in a one-on-one with the keeper and had to come off and was replaced by Kevin Waterman.

With only a few minutes to go Bailey, who had worked hard on both flanks, got in a clean shot close in from Godbold’s cross to make it 2-0 to the Wherrymen.

Beccles then shut up shop well, keeping the ball in the Wroxham half and after four minutes of extra time the referee, who had had a very good game, brought the game to an end.

The reserves’ game against Yelverton was called off. Tomorrow Beccles are at Stalham (2pm) and the reserves entertain Newton Flotman (2.30pm).