It was another one of those days for Gorleston at Emerald Park as they slipped back to the bottom of the table.

There were five changes to the side which lost at Thetford the week before. Ryan Hemmings replaced the unavailable Connor Milligan in goal. Fletcher Hedge was dropped to the bench as was Keegan Middleton, who had made his 200th Gorleston appearance the previous week, whilst Sam Ellis and Keith Vincent were absent. In came Luke Goreham, Peter Lambert, Eddie Short and Joel Watts.

The Greens fell behind in the 11th minute, making it five of the last nine games they have conceded in the opening quarter of an hour.

Gorleston failed to clear the ball and it fell nicely to Will Wingfield on the edge of the box and he drilled a low effort into the bottom right corner of the net.

It could have got worse three minutes later. Goreham upended Jamie Griffiths in the box. Griffiths picked himself up to take the penalty but Hemmings threw himself to his left to superbly save the spot-kick.

A Watts cross picked out Lambert at the near post but his header was into the side-netting. Watts then tried his luck from range but scuffed the effort wide before Connor Ingram's free-kick from the corner of the box sailed high over.

After the break Tom Blackwell all too easily found his way into the Greens' box but shot wide.

Gorleston then had a big shout for handball in the Melford penalty area but the referee wasn't interestedr before Jacob Short and Connor Ingram both found themselves free in the centre of the box but got in each other's way going for the header and Short put it wide.

The Greens were battling well and working hard but they needed a spark and were missing some creativity in the middle of the park.

Gorleston pressed Melford back for the final 10 minutes and deserved something for their efforts but didn't unduly trouble the keeper, with Kyle Ingram drilling an effort narrowly over the bar four minutes from time.

History was made in the 89th minute when Kyle Ingram became the first Gorleston player ever to be sin-binned.

Match sponsor was Gerald Baxter and family who awarded the Batemans man of the match to Jordan Cantwell.

Gorleston: Hemmings, Goreham, Bailey, Cantwell, McKay, E Short, K Ingram (c), J Short, Lambert, C Ingram, Watts (Hedge 79).

Ref: Oliver Morris-Sanders. Attendance: 87.