Match Report

St Ives Town 1 Needham Market 1

Evo-Stik League South Premier Central – 25-08-18

With manager Ricky Marheineke away on holiday assistant Bully Adams was the man in charge of the Ives for this fixture. Being the positive guy that he is Adams was probably one of the few people in the ground who did not think that the ten man Ives goose was cooked when the Marketmen grabbed the lead five minutes after the break.

The hosts had been reduced to ten men as early as 26^th minute when the all action Ollie Snaith lunged in on Jeremiah Kamanzi right in front of the referee. Although Snaith made little contact with the opposition player referee Andrew Humphries deemed it an out of control and dangerous tackle and swiftly delivered a straight red card to the Ives man.

The one sure thing about this seasons Ives side is that to a man they will always battle one hundred per cent for the cause and their level of effort and energy made it difficult for a late arrival to realise that they had one less player on the park. The remainder of the match continued as a fairly even contest and as the game entered the final ten minutes the ten men began to exert some pressure on the visitor’s goal which culminated in a well deserved equaliser from the spot by skipper Robbie Parker two minutes from the end of the ninety.

Having clocked up twelve goals in their opening three League fixtures it was no surprise that the Marketmen started on the front foot enjoying the majority of the early possession but as has become their style this season the hard working Ives ensured that they had little time on the ball and were unable to build any real pressure on Tim Trebes goal.

The first real item of note was a booking for centre back Jarvis Wilson as he took one for the team in 20^th minute. The pacey Luke Ingram almost got away onto a clip over the top through the left channel and Wilson was forced to bring him down just outside the left corner of the box. The young defender accepted his fate and was somewhat vindicated in his action as Marketmen’s skipper Gareth Heath drove the resulting free kick into the wall.

The next noteworthy act six minutes later was another card for an Ives man this time the unfortunate red for Snaith. The Ives reshuffle saw Munashe Sundire come over from the left side to the right and George Bailey drop back into a left sided midfield role leaving the battling Danny Kelly up front on his own.

The flow of the game changed very little and the next half chance came the way of the hosts as Marketmen’s keeper Jake Jessup came a long way to try and claim a Parker free kick around his penalty spot in 39^th minute. However the big custodian did not allow for traffic and found himself struggling to get through the crowd of friends and foe in front of him failing to make much contact with the ball at all. But luck was on his side as the loose ball was scrambled out at the expense of a corner by his team mate Dan Morphew.

Having survived the scare the visitors went close to grabbing the lead themselves four minutes later as Joseph Marsden and Jake Dye combined on the right before the latter delivered a ball across the box that got through everyone and arrived beyond the back post where fellow full back Callum Sturgess looked like he had a tap in but keeper Trebes bravely hurled himself in to block the effort at point blank range. Neither man knew that the assistant on the near side had already raised his flag for offside to render their efforts unnecessary.

The final effort of the first period again came from the busy Parker. Charlie De’ath delivered a throw into the ever willing feet of Kelly who held the ball up expertly just outside the visitors box before rolling it into the run of Parker who curled his effort a couple of feet wide from 20 yards.

The opening goal arrived five minutes after the restart as Marsden found some space on the left before delivering a teasing cross that had Trebes in trouble. The Ives custodian was fast back peddling to try and get to the hanging ball as it just drifted over his head. He did well to paw it away from the head of Ingram, but the loose ball fell invitingly to Jeremiah Kamanzi deep inside the Ives box. Kamanzi made no mistake as he took a touch and hammered his shot high into the roof of the net.

The pace and trickery of Marsden continued to cause problems on the left and he just beat Trebes to a clip over the top in 65^th minute, fortunately for Ives the angle was very narrow and although his effort cleared the exposed keeper it landed on top of the net.

De’ath joined his fellow defender Wilson in the referee’s notebook in 78^th minute as he was forced to bring down Ingram just as the Marketmen’s front man looked like getting clear. Again the action was vindicated as Sturgess curled the resulting free kick inches over the top.

Manager Adams introduced Ben Seymour-Shove in place of the tiring Sundire nine minutes from time and the Ives winger had an instant impact. His first touch was to deliver a corner from the right which Jessup dropped under pressure. Once more the big keeper was relieved to be saved by one of his defenders who hacked the ball away.

Seymour-Shove’s next action was also telling as three minutes later Parker played a quick free kick to him wide on the left and his in-swinging cross flicked off Keiran Morphew and just past the far post.

The ten men continued to build the pressure on their opposition and grabbed a deserved equaliser with less than two minutes of the ninety left on the clock. Kelly was clumsily brought down by Morphew 25 yards from goal. Parker lined up the resulting free kick and in a move straight off the training ground slid it to Seymour-Shove as he peeled off the end of the wall. With the Ives winger in a shooting position deep inside the Marketmen’s box Ingram put in an attacking players challenge taking the legs from under Seymour-Shove just as he shaped to shoot for a cast iron penalty.

Parker remained as cool as a cucumber whilst the visitor’s wailed their protest to the unmoving referee. Even the intimidation of the giant Jessup looming over him for a few seconds whilst he waited to be instructed back to his line made no difference as captain courageous slotted his penalty low past the dive of Jessup and into the bottom corner of the net.

Concentration was now the order of the day to ensure that the very hard earned point was now wrested away from the Ives in the added six minutes. But that is also a vital tool this side has in it’s armoury. The nearest the Marketmen came to taking all three points back to Suffolk was ninety seconds from the end when substitute Adam Mills got on the end of a low Marsden cross from the right, but he prodded his effort wide to ensure that honours finished even.

This was a well deserved point against a good all round side and having played for over an hour with ten men that late goal felt more like a winner. Robbie Parker took the man of the match accolade for a true skipper’s display leading from the front as he covered every blade of grass and showed true guts and composure to put away the late spot kick.

Final Score  :  St Ives Town  1  Needham Market  1

Goals : Parker 88 (pen)

St Ives team : Trebes, Hood, De’ath (Dylan Wilson 86), McGowan, Cartwright, Jarvis Wilson, Snaith,  Parker (capt), Kelly, Bailey (Wallis 64), Sundire (Seymour-Shove 81)

Unused Subs : Rogers, Leslie

Man of match : Robbie Parker

Attendance  :  243

Report by Nigel Howlett