Felixstowe & Walton United FC

Seasiders fall to defeat in local derby

Felixstowe & Walton United fell to a 2-1 home defeat to fellow playoff contenders AFC Sudbury. A competitive, fast paced match was settled by three set piece goals in a game of otherwise few goalscoring opportunities. The away side took a 33rd minute lead when Reece Harris expertly converted a 20 yard free kick. Canfer headed just over from a Barley cross as Felixstowe looked to get back in the game but it was the visitors who extended the lead with the second goal of the night. Jamie Shaw stealing in at the near post in a well worked corner routine on 51 minutes. Felixstowe did manage a consolation goal in the 4th monute of added on time, Josh Hitter scoring a stunning free kick from 22 yards into the top corner but it was too little too late as the whistle blew shortly after and Sudbury moved to within a point of the Seasiders.

Seasiders Manager Stuart Boardley spoke after the game. "I thought we were second best all over tonight to be honest, congratulations to Rick and Angelo's team, they were better than us from start to finish and we just never really got going, we huffed and puffed all night, it was not a lack of effort, but poor decision making and the fact we couldn't pass water tonight was the issue, that is unusual for us and that made it just one of those nights really. Sudbury came to play high tempo, long, direct football and we played into their hands as we responded by doing something similar, which isn't what our game plan was, isn't what we like to try and do and it certainly didn't suit us so inevitably we came second best at playing Sudbury's game I guess. It is disapointing to concede two set piece goals, perhaps Callum had his wall wrong for the first, but look, he has saved us in recent games so we can't be too harsh as he has been great for us over a long period of time. The goal from the corner was cleverly worked, again you can question that we should have defended that a lot better, we felt we could dominate set pieces tonight, with our quality on the ball, our size and our attacking prowess, but unfortunately Sudbury did all that a lot better than us tonight and they dominated the set pieces from all over." Boardley went on to say. "Looking at the positives, we look to have come out tonight with no new injuries, so we should have a couple of players back Saturday for Aveley. Getting Zak Brown back on the pitch for a short period tonight and then going forward should be massively beneficial for us, especially with Manny (Osei) going back to Stowmarket. Josh Hitter got some minutes and a great goal so he's coming slowly back to fitness so those important minutes tonight will stand them both in good stead moving forward. Looking ahead to Saturday, it's probably the best game we can play actually, we always respond well in the face of adversity, always respond well when we are playing teams that are better than us and I think that shows in the cup runs we have had when we have gone up against teams from a higher level, Aveley are a very good side, having played pretty much every team now in this league, they were for me the best team we have come up against and meeting them on Saturday, I don't think you could have chosen a better time to play them to be frank, it's perfect for us and the challenge is laid there for the boys now, do you lay down and die? or do you do what we do and come back and fight?"