Ipswich 2s 5 Spalding Men 1s 4
A nine-goal thriller went against Spalding Men’s first team as they missed the chance to go second in the East Men’s Division One North table.
Illness crippled the squad for the long journey to Woodbridge to take on Ipswich 2s, meaning manager Jason Naylor had to fill in to help the team again. Even so, they ran the hosts close.
Following a drive into the D by a home attacker, a shot took a massive deflection and looped into the bottom corner to put them ahead.
Spalding reacted well and a top quality link-up between Dan Azzopardi and scorer Jacob Baker, the player of the match, gave Spalding an immediate equaliser.
That gave Spalding the momentum to win a short corner, and Stewart Cunnington calmly converted with a drag flick.
However, the numbers in attack left the visitors vulnerable to a counter attack and Ipswich overloaded in the Spalding D to make it 2-2.
Again Spalding reacted well, scoring twice. Cunnington added his second and Darren Grooby scored his first goal for the team with a wonderful first-time finish, assisted by Jacob Baker to put Spalding 4-2 up at half-time.
A tired Spalding invited a lot of second-half pressure from Ipswich, which was made more difficult after Will Baker got a green card.
The visitors’ defence was eventually broken down through two quick short corners and a reverse shot late on to put Spalding behind.
Despite their best efforts to respond again, Spalding could not find another goal.
Spalding Men 2s 0 Cambridge City 5s 2
Spalding started this Three North West game strongly, playing out from the back well and putting Cambridge on the back foot.
They created chances to score but just failed at the last hurdle.
Mistakes allowed Cambridge to break away and they went ahead from a short corner.
That woke up the visitors and they wiggled their way into the D to score a second soon after. Great goalkeeping from Rob Callaby ensured no more goals followed.
Spalding started to claw themselves back into the game after the break with some great play through the middle but just lacked the final touch.
Player of the match was Harry Maplethorpe.
Ely City 2s 8 Spalding Men 3s 0
A depleted Spalding side travelled to Ely to take on a strong home team in Four North West.
Spalding started on the back foot with Ely scoring first and they continued to pile on the pressure, scoring four more before half-time.
Spalding upped their game in the second half and started to put on some pressure. However, Ely remained in control and scored three more.
Long Sutton 3s 2 Spalding Men 4s 3
Spalding started strongly and took a deserved lead after 10 minutes in the Five North West derby . Good work from Brian Read found Peter Wright to slot home.
Andrew Shore equalised from a short corner and added another for Sutton early in the second half.
Excellent defensive work by Lorenzo Mendoza kept the score at 2-1. Spalding continued to play expansive hockey and were rewarded when Danny Wright found Peter Wright to equalise.
With 10 minutes to go, a well-worked short corner was clinically despatched by Dave Burrell to secure a first win of the season and a first for many of the young side.
