A Home Win Again

AFC won their second home game of the season against a resilient Burnham side that belied their lowly position in the table and fought all the way to the end.

Manager David Batch put out an unchanged side, the one that defeated Chatham away in the previous game and named the same players on the bench.

AFC started brightly with Kris Newby having a shot saved and then firing over the Burnham bar. Alex Archer was forced into save in the eleventh minute and James Baker, still in defence, had to clear as the visitors put on some pressure.

New signing Terry Rymer (pictured) broke away but shot over, before Jack Guyton had a shot saved by the legs of keeper Belcher. It was however Rymer who broke the deadlock on sixteen minutes, getting away and blasting home from an angle giving Belcher no chance. It was his first for the club and was the 138th ever scorer for AFC.

Newby, Ayrton Coley and Guyton combined well with the latter shooting wide. Aubynn for Burnham did well getting the ball to Nobbs whose shot was saved by Archer. Jack Wilkinson got in a great saving tackle when Aubynn was through. A slight mistake and it was a penalty but the ex-Haverhill Rovers man did well.

AFC appealed for a penalty when Newby burst through the middle and seemed to be impeded in the penalty area but there was nothing given. Coley was getting the ball and making progress but on several occasions was guilty of wasting the opportunities.

In the dying minutes of the half Rymer had to go off with a slight hamstring injury and Correy Davidson took over. The visitors picked up two late bookings with both Nobbs and Gorbell seeing yellow.

Half-time; AFC Sudbury 1 Burnham Ramblers 0

Davidson showed his pace early on bursting away from his marker and seeing his shot saved by Belcher’s legs. Coley continued to make rampaging runs down the right and got the ball to Newby who missed his shot and Guyton the fired the ball over.

Burnham then had a spell where they earned a number of corners but could not penetrate the home defence.

Just past the hour mark Payton Swatman took over from Guyton and short time after Ryan Henshaw came on for Newby who had a recurrence of a knee problem. This meant Baker taking his normal place in attack and a short time after the change it paid dividends with him shooting home from the edge of the box. Ben Robinson played the ball to Coley who interchanged with Swatman and it came back to Baker who scored.

Baker was in action again soon after when he received the ball from Davidson but his shot was saved and went for a corner. A few minutes later AFC should have wrapped the game up, but Baker headed just wide from a Coley cross. Lawrence Yiga was then booked as had Sam Clarke a few minutes earlier.

It looked as though AFC would win with a clean sheet, but Burnham to their credit kept going and in stoppage time Aubynn somehow bundled the ball home to reduce the deficit.

There was still time for an AFC attack with Coley crossing for Swatman to have an effort saved by Belcher. The whistle then went and it was three more points and a climb to seventh in the table.

Attendance 148

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