Suffolk & Ipswich League
Senior Division
Thursday 28th April 2022
Kick Off 18.30 Actual 18.34
Westerfield United 2 Trimley Red Devils 4, attendance 56
1’ 0-1
7’ 0-2
21’ 0-3
45’ 1-3
79’ 1-4
90’ 2-4
@ Ipswich School Sports Centre
The Street
Rushmere St. Andrew
IP5 1DE
No Admission or Programme.
Westerfield United came into what was their final game of the season, sitting 13th (fourth bottom) in the league table. With two to go down, they could have done with picking up something from this, to keep their destiny in their own hands. Bottom club Achilles can’t catch them, but Capel Plough and Leiston St. Margarets can and, perhaps crucially, they meet in the final game of the season. Trimley Red Devils sit in sixth place, but could still finish third.
Westerfield were warned by the Referee that he would report them for causing the late kick off, which needn’t have happened, as the warm ups were taking place at least twenty minutes before the scheduled start. The dithering didn’t seem to work. They went behind after just 19 seconds and conceded the second before we were eight minutes in, a superb curling shot, that went in off the far post, giving the visitors a 0-2 lead. Midway through the half it was 0-3 and any chance Westerfield had of getting anything from this had gone. They did head in from a free kick in the final minute of the half, to pull it back to 1-3, but the damage was done.
They did improve in the second half and despite having a player sin binned early in the half, they kept the visitors at bay until an own goal (scored by the player who’d earlier been sin binned) made it 1-4 with eleven minutes left. Westerfield rounded off the scoring for the night, when a looping header went over the ’keeper, to make it 2-4 in the last minute.
The Sports Centre is a hive of activity. There is a large car park at the entrance, where the walk from the two storey changing room/reception/bar building to reach the pitch is about 150 yards. To the left is a blue artificial hockey pitch, then some netball courts, whilst to the right, running the opposite way, is a traditional green artificial hockey pitch and another couple of netball courts. On reaching the Westerfield pitch, which is the middle of three parallel, (the old changing room building is in the far left hand corner) there is a second blue artificial hockey pitch to the left, whilst to the right is a second football pitch, which has permanent dugouts and wooden stakes around the perimeter, although no rope through them. A.F.C. Kesgrave Reserves played on this pitch tonight, losing 0-3 to Bacton United ’89 Reserves.
