Felixstowe & Walton United FC

FELIXSTOWE & WALTON UTD 2 - 0 BASILDON UNITED

 SUPERB SEASIDERS GAIN CRUCIAL WIN

The Seasiders supporters were treated to a post-Christmas celebration at the Goldstar Ground as goals from Miles Powell and Ollie Canfer secured a crucial three points against Basildon United, in what was Felixstowe’s last game of an eventful and successful decade for the club.

There was a welcome return to the first team for Josh Kerridge following his injury layoff, with Jack Spurling, Stuart Ainsley, Miles Powell, Jordan Matthews and Harry Knights all recalled to the starting eleven against a side sitting level on points with Felixstowe. Before the game, a ceremony was held at the Colneis end of the ground as the stand was renamed the “Dave Ashford stand” to honour the club president and as a mark of recognition for his tireless 50+ year involvement with the club.

The game started at a fast pace with Felixstowe looking the livelier of the sides, Basildon were certainly competitive, and several tackles and skirmishes kept the referee busy early on. The Seasiders were creating plenty of half-chances; Armani Schaar and George Clarke were unlucky not to score whilst Stuart Ainsley was wowing the crowd with four superb tackles at his left back position to keep Basildon at bay whenever they pushed forward.

The second half was again dominated by the home side, any time Basildon did have a sight of goal, they showed wayward finishing, only troubling Spurling once in the Seasiders goal, a long range effort brilliantly tipped over the bar. Meanwhile at the other end, Felixstowe were being denied by the goalkeeper and the crossbar, the latter from a thumping header by Josh Kerridge. Felixstowe did take the lead on 67 minutes; the roar from the impressive crowd was one of relief as Miles Powell fired into the roof of the net from six yards after Armani Schaar had done well on the right, only to see his snap shot cannon off the foot of the post. The goal seemed to settle Felixstowe even further and they scored a superb goal on 76 minutes, a through ball from midfield was chased on by Ollie Canfer, who coolly lobbed the ‘keeper from 20 yards, an excellent finish to further ease any nerves in the crowd that a one-goal lead brings.  The Seasiders were happy to see out the remainder of the match and were given a great reception at the end of the game. Crowd favourite, Jordan Matthews was also presented with an award in recognition of his recent landmark 250^th appearance for the club.

Felixstowe boss Stuart Boardley spoke after the match. “We are obviously made-up, I thought we dominated the game from start to finish and deserved the points, it probably could have been more than a two goal win, but all credit to the lads, plus a clean sheet as well, which is what we asked for before the game.” He went on to say. “We knew it would be a tough, physical game, we knew we had to ride the storm, but we have lads now that are more than capable of holding their own in that respect, then we allowed our quality to show in the second half as we got the ball down and played once Basildon started to tire. It was also great to see us keep our discipline when things were getting physical at times. It was a really good team performance, I wouldn’t say there was one individual that stood out amongst others but all eleven who were on the pitch at any point, really put in a shift for the team. We could feel the relief around the pitch, but also in the changing room afterwards! We are hoping this is the catalyst now to really kick-start our season and getting us moving forward, we have been looking for that the last few games, but today it was a really deserved victory.”

Felixstowe rise two places in the table to 17^th place following this victory, and will travel in good spirits to Heybridge Swifts for a New Year’s Day fixture.

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