Saturday 7th August 2010

Diss Reserves

Pre-Season Friendly

Foulsham 3 Diss Town Reserves 3  

 Match Report by Tony Collins

Diss Reserves continued their pre-season games with a good display in a 3-3 draw away at Anglian Combination Division Two team Foulsham, who also played some fine football.

Although Foulsham had more of the first half attacking play it was Diss who created the chances and scored more goals. In the 4^th minute Steve Wright hit the post when he moved on to a fine through ball from Chris Gibbons. Five minutes later Diss took the lead when James Harrison sent a fine centre in from the left wing and Rafel Szalek rose unchallenged at the far post to head in from six yards out. Max Kirkby was next to test the goalkeeper with a shot on target from 25 yards out to a fine Harrison pass. Foulsham struck the post with a header in a good spell of pressure.

A poor goal kick in the 31^st minute saw Diss give the ball away for Foulsham to move forward and equalise. However, Diss regained the lead in the 40^th minute. Kirkby was the scorer. His Dad, Andrew, had been critical of some of his earlier play but was heard to whisper “well done Maxwell” as Max took his time and created space to take and loose ball and curl a shot into the net. Two minutes later Wright played a perfect through ball for Harrison to run and float the ball past the goalkeeper to make it 3-1.

It was no surprise when Foulsham pulled a goal back with a fine header in the 56^th minute to a cross from the left. A number of changes seemed to make life difficult for Diss but Damien Phelan was denied a goal in the 75^th minute when a defender got back to clear off the line after Phelan rounded the goalkeeper wide on the right after Gibbons and Karl Ansley linked up well on the right. Five minutes from the end a long though ball caught Diss out down the middle and produced a Foulsham equaliser.

Diss team: Aaron Bunn, Ryan MacFadden, Wayne Collins, Chris Gibbons, Carl Bronson, Matty Hill, James Harrison, Rafel Szalek, Steve Wright, Karl Ansley, Max Kirkby.

Diss subs: Andy Collins-Reed (for Hill at half time), Damien Phelan (for Bronson 58 mins) and Ronaldo Qoopre De Barra (for Kirkby 80 mins).

Diss Reserves lost 2-0 away at a strong Hempnall side, who play in The Premier Division Anglian Combination, on the previous Tuesday. Their league season starts at home against Whitton Reserves on Saturday 21^st August.

Diss Under-18s opened their pre-season friendly matches with an encouraging performance against Harford Tornadoes Under-18s last Thursday. After 60 minutes the game was 2-2 with Diss goals from George Cole and Damien Phelan. Harford introduced a new team and then went on to win 6-2.

The remaining Diss Under-18 pre-season matches are on Thursday 12^th August at home v Histon (kick off 7.30pm), Thursday 19^th August away at Gorleston (kick off 7.30pm) and on Wednesday 25^th August away at Dereham Under-18s (kick off 7.30pm).

Various sponsorship opportunities exist at Diss Town F C. Please ring the club on 01379 651223 on weekday evenings for further details.

The Diss Town Football Club house facilities at Brewers Green Lane are available for use by other local sporting clubs. For details and discussion on your requirements either visit the club on a weekday evening or ring 01379 651223. There is a pool table and dart board for those wishing to enter local leagues for those two sports.