Norwich and District Saturday Football League: UEA A 4, Wensum Albion 1

Albion visited Colney to take on UEA A in their first game after a long Christmas break. Albion started slowly but were soon matching the home side in terms of effort and application, battling for every ball and committing to challenges.

UEA passed the ball well but solid team defending from Albion limited the students to half chances. In attack Sam Littleboy, on his Wensum debut, worked hard to hold the ball up and bring the midfield in to the game. On the half hour UEA took the lead when a ball from the right wing was side footed home from short range. Wensum then went on to play some of their better football. Neat one, two touch passes saw the away side advance into the UEA’s final third on a few occasions, but the decisive ball to carve out a shooting opportunity never happened.

Albion looked to get back in to the match in the second half, Bowes-Shorten moving up front to add some energy to the attack.

UEA doubled the lead when a deep corner was headed back across the goal where their forward was waiting to head over the line from no more than a yard. Mark Leeper was unlucky not to grab a goal back when his looping shot from 25 yards skimmed the crossbar but as the away side pressed forward gaps appeared for the UEA to exploit.

UEA added a third from inside the box before going 4-0 up soon after.

Never a team to throw in the towel, Albion were rewarded with a consolation goal late on when a Leeper free-kick was flicked on by Littleboy to Martin who headed back in to the danger area where centre half Philo bravely bundled in to the net. It was the very least the centre back deserved after another committed performance.

Albion will have a swift opportunity for riposte as the return fixture is scheduled for next week.