Another blow for battling Pedlars

Stowmarket Town 4, Swaffham Town 0

THIS game was a further disappointment for Paul Hunt's squad, and a scoreline which again did not reflect the nature of the game.

They hope for better things this weekend when they host Halstead Town on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.

The Reserves travel to North Walsham 2pm kick off and the A team are away to Cranworth in the third round of the Ben Smith Memorial Cup.

Early pressure saw Will O'Brien, Medhi Mehrpour and Nathan Cross combining well.

The first threat from the home side came in the 17th minute forcing a save from Dean Mayes pushing the ball wide for a corner, the result of that easily gathered.

The Stowmarket opener came from a mistake at the back.

Matthew Parkinson lost the ball, the centre forward ran through the defence, his ground shot catching a bump in the ground to take it over the outstretched arms of diving Mayes.

On the stroke of half-time Stowmarket broke on the right-hand side, a well-delivered cross was easily met for the number seven to side-foot into the net.

A change to the side with the introduction of new signing Aaaron Clifford for Jake Platten in the 55th minute, but Mayes was wrong-footed by a wicked deflection for the third after 60 minutes.

The Pedlars battled and at no time gave up the match.

A further tactical change saw Jack Redhead replace Dwayne Hockton but further efforts still left the visitors looking for a goal.

The final goal for Stowmarket came in the 81st minute, Swaffham caught out after pushing forward with numbers, beaten by the resulting break.