Derby wins for Dereham and Wroxham

Dereham Town moved seven points clear at the top of the Ridgeons League Premier Division table with a 3-1 derby win over Norwich United at Plantation Park.

Dereham went ahead after just three minutes when leading scorer Danny Beaumont was put clean through and confidently stroked the ball past goalkeeper Ben Nower.

The visitors doubled their advantage on 14 minutes when Kyle Downes beat Nower in another one-on-one situation, only to be pegged back just after the half hour mark as Paul Atkins slotted home after good work by Steve Shipley and Andrew Claydon.

Hopes of a comeback were effectively snuffed out four minutes later when Gary Starling powered home a long range free-kick to make it 3-1 and although Thomson was dismissed just before the break for a second bookable offence Dereham saw out the game with few alarms in the second half, with Adam Gusterson coming off the bench to shore up the visitors’ defence.

Wroxham, meanwhile, moved up to second place in the table with a hard-fought 2-0 derby victory at Great Yarmouth, who suffered a second home defeat in the space of four days.

The sending off of Yarmouth’s Jake Reed on the hour mark proved to be a key moment as the Yachtsmen took charge in the latter stages, with goals from Danny Boswell (71 minutes) and Gavin Lemmon (88) securing victory.

And there was more good news for Wroxham fans last night after they signed former Burnley and Doncaster striker Ian Duerden.

The 32- year-old, who has also played for Halifax Town, Kingstonian and Barrow, is now living locally, and his signing will give match David Batch another option with injuries to Damian Hilton, Paul Cook and Claudio Langlois.