First team coach Colin Greengrass was glad to see the Wherrymen’s defensive work pay off with a clean sheet and a derby win at the weekend.

Beccles Town sent Loddon United packing with a 2-0 Anglian Combination Premier Division win on Saturday. But most pleasing for Greengrass was the Wherrymen keeping United out for the full 90 minutes – on the back of conceding 10 goals in their last two games.

“The result was all important, but we’d been conceding goals before the game so it was important we got our defence right,” said Greengrass. “We concentrated on defending properly as a team, which we were reasonably successful at doing, we kept a clean sheet and it was a relief to get the win.

“They were two really well-taken goals and there was a lot of improvement.”

The three points lifted Town above their local rivals into 11th in the table – but Beccles’ aims remain higher.

“Our aim is to finish as high up the league as possible,” added Greengrass. “Last season we finished sixth with more or less the same players and we are disappointed with where we are in the league at the moment.

“We are not really worrying about what other clubs are doing. Our motivation is to justify our ability and at the moment we are not playing up to that level.

“To justify it we need to get to a reasonable position in the league and we need to prove we are the same team we were last year.

“We were unfortunate in that we had a very tough start to the season, which put us on the back foot before we really got started, and we had a pretty bad run of injuries and call-offs.

“But we are now getting the squad back together and I think that is reflecting in the first team and reserves, who have had a more settled side.

“We want to establish ourselves in this league – first and foremost is safety.

“We’ve got to get to that position, and then establish ourselves and finish as high as possible.

“We would like to win the Wightman Cup and then obviously to build for next season so we can push on to a midtable or above position, so we can challenge for top honours next year.

“We must not sit on our laurels. We have to say we want to go on from here and win things. The town could definitely sustain a higher level of football.”