Clinical second-half display sees Needham Market end Stratford Town's six-game unbeaten run
STRATFORD Town's six-game unbeaten run came to a crashing end on Saturday, as they slumped to an uncharacteristic 4-1 defeat at Needham Market, reports Steve Wood.
The Marketmen – buzzed by the fact they'd been drawn at home to Stockport County in the FA Trophy quarter-finals – took the lead after 36 minutes through Luke Ingram.
Barely a minute into the second half the Bards found themselves 2-0 down when Noah Collard fired in before Harvey Sayer added a third with 25 minutes still left to play.
Ben Fowkes made it 4-0 in the 77th minute to compound more misery on a Stratford side that would have the last say when Leroy Lita scored his first goal for the Bards in the second minute of stoppage time.
The uncharacteristic nature of the second-half performance and the manner of the goals conceded would not have pleased Flowers, with the defeat leaving his side 12th in the table and ten points clear of the bottom three.
Flowers made two changes to the team which beat Hednesford Town 1-0 last Tuesday night, with Owen James and Dan Lafferty coming in for Ross Oulton and Dan Vann, and in a change of formation, Lewis Wilson moved to full-back and Will Grocott was pushed further forward to support Lita.
For much of the first 45 minutes it was the Bards who made the most of the wind advantage, but there were few clear-cut chances.
However, there were numerous free-kicks on the edge of the box as the Marketmen struggled to control Lita and Will Dawes, but nothing came of them.
James saw plenty of the ball on the right-hand side but struggled to link effectively with Lita and in the 36th minute the hosts opened the scoring from their only shot on target.
Taylor Clark evaded a number of tackles before releasing the lively Ingram who ran clear of the defence and slotted past the stranded Liam O'Brien.
Despite only being a goal down at the break, there was optimism from the first-half performance that the game could be turned in Stratford's favour.
However, that disappeared within 40 seconds of the restart when from kick-off, the ball was overturned and transferred quickly to Collard who made the most of the opportunity to put the home side 2-0 up.
Needham's third goal after 65 minutes arrived from the left when full-back Sayer wasn't closed down and he drove a shot across O'Brien and into the back of the net. Less than ten minutes later Fowkes added the fourth.
The Bards did manage to find the back of the net in stoppage time when Lita showed skill to find space in the box and fire a shot into the corner, but that was as good as it got for the Bards on a difficult afternoon in Suffolk, a county they have struggled to get results from.
Next up for Stratford is a trip to Hednesford Town on Saturday (3pm kick-off) followed by a journey to Stourbridge on Monday night (7.45pm kick-off).
NEEDHAM: Garnham, Dye, Sayer, Hammond, K Morphew, D Morphew, Clark, Collard, Ingram, Brothers, Fowkes. Unused subs: Maycock, Page, Fitzgerald, Chambers, Sturgess.
STRATFORD: O’Brien, Wilson, Bushaj, Sammons (Fry 78), Turner, Williams, James (Tellyn 75), Lafferty, Lita, Grocott (Okoro 78), Dawes. Unused subs: Beresford, O’Regan.
ATTENDANCE: 283
