The day was overcast as it often is in November but mild with only a slight breeze. The pitch looked in reasonable order and a reasonable number of spectators assembled to watch the game.
After the preliminaries of the handshakes and coin toss the players and spectators observed a minutes silence to honour and respect the memory of our fallen servicemen and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defence of our freedoms in previous and current generations.
The Debenham team looked a bit thin as Rob Kemp was absent with a groin strain, Kevin Barker was forced to rest a painful knee that needs a bit of treatment and Adam Rickwood was still nursing his toe after a painful ingrown toenail was removed but manager Dale Vince called in Ben Bowler for his third senior outing and Jack Seccombe retained his place on the bench alongside George Johnson and Nathan Smith who were available as the reserves didn’t have a game. New signing Ben Green was drafted straight into the team for his Hornets debut and played an advanced midfield role alongside Liam Bevis and looked quick and skilful.
Both teams made a lively start to the game and it was Debenham who nearly drew first blood as Marc Wake headed on a ball from James Heathcote but Liam Smith’s shot was just wide of the target. Colin Gedney was showing up well at right full back and from one of his excellent deep crosses the home team earned a corner that was cleared by the Downham defence. Ben Green was displaying his Premier Division pedigree as he sent a precise pass 30 yards across the field and then sent a smart snap shot straight at the visitors’ keeper. On 9 minutes a ball from Liam Jones up the field was gathered by Liam Smith and his acrobatic cross into the Downham penalty area was headed over the bar by Marc Wake when well placed.
An amusing incident on 15 minutes saw the referee lose the volume of his whistle which was getting progressively weaker and we all thought that he would end up silent but he removed the pea and gave the whistle a good blow out to restore the normal volume.
The 21st minute saw Liam Smith chase a ball into the Downham box and win possession and his pass to Marc Wake was hit towards goal but the effort was blocked by a desperate tackle when a goal looked certain. Downham Town were being outplayed in the central area of the field and when they did manage to get forward their strikers found the Debenham defence in uncompromising mood with Lee Bloom looking back to his best and Tom Hardwick looking more and more like a central defender. Colin Gedney put in a good performance at right back and Captain Ed Cussons showed his usual qualities at left back.
Debenham were playing a nice brand of passing football with Liam Bevis and Ben Green being busy and Marc Wake having a good game holding the ball up well and feeding the wide strikers Heathcote and Smith but as is so often the case clear opportunities to score were just not being created.

Half time                    Debenham LC FC   0        Downham Town FC    0

Downham Town came out for the second half in positive mood and had a shot at goal on 47 minutes that went past the post and Debenham in their turn continued to play the ball on the floor and looked like scoring in the 57th minute when Liam Smith fed a nicely weighted ball through to Ben Green whose ball across the six yard box was agonisingly 10 inches too high for Marc Wake who would have had a simple job to head the ball into the net if he could have reached it.
The 49th minute saw Downham Town break away and Ryan Pearson had a sight of goal but his run was stopped by a first class tackle from Lee Bloom who cleared the ball away.
69 minutes saw Debenham make a double substitution as reserves player Nathan Smith replaced Marc Wake and Nathan Vincent replaced James Heathcote. Nathan Smith was involved immediately as the Hornets attacked and Liam Smith drove the ball across the six yard line without a colleague to finish the move off and Ben Green’s cross shot was deflected for a corner kick.
The home supporters feared the worst after 75 minutes when Downham attacked again through a defence that was caught upfield and MATTHEW CALVERT was given two shooting chances and he dispatched the second with a crisp shot past Liam Jones to give the visitors the lead. Wee all thought that this was to be the classic smash and grab raid after Debenham had dominated the game but had nothing to show until the 80th minute when a slice of good fortune saw the home team awarded a throw in after the ball came off a yellow shirt 20 yards from the left corner flag. Ed Cussons took the throw quickly to LIAM BEVIS who skipped past a defender and let fly with a curling and dipping 20 yard shot that Downham keeper Lee Brooks reached but his leap could only help the ball into the top right hand corner of the goal. Cue massive celebrations as a point gained is better than a loss and Debenham went in search of another goal that could win the game but Downham had other ideas and it took another good tackle from Lee Bloom to stop a counter attack. Both teams struggled to find the necessary good pass to finish off the game and despite being on top at the end the Hornets finished the game with just a point to show for their efforts.
A good performance by the Hornets but again a lack of clear scoring chances. Ben Bowler played well again and new man Ben Green certainly livened things up, so we go into next week’s game against Ipswich Wanderers in good form and looking for more points.

Final Score                 Debenham LC FC   1        Downham Town FC    1
                                 Bevis   80                          Calvert   75

Referee                      Mr K Theobald   Assistant Referees Mr D Biggs  Mr I Gammage

Attendance                78

Debenham LC FC   Jones, Gedney, Cussons, Green, Hardwick, Bloom, Bevis, Bowler, L.Smith, Wake,                                  Heathcote   Substitutes   Seccombe, Vincent, N.Smith, Johnson, Chilvers

Downham Town FC Brooks, Franks, Hewitt, Pearson, Castellan, Bird, Plumb, Calvert, Hanslip, Dickson,                                  Goodbourn   Substitutes   Hilton, Reeve, Dye, Goult