Swaffham Town 1 Gorleston 1

Gorleston ended a run of three consecutive defeats but came agonisingly short of victory after an encouraging performance against the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division new boys.

It took just 11 minutes for the Greens to take the lead – breaking from a Swaffham free-kick, Ally McKenna helped the ball on to Joel Watts breaking down the left. Watts fired in from an angle and the ball was parried on by the goalkeeper to Kyle Ingram on the right and he made no mistake to score his first Gorleston goal.

A nice move between Chris Sandford, Ingram and McKenna saw the latter’s shot saved before George Macrae was forced into a low save at the other end.

Then it was McKenna who came close to increasing the lead with a turn and shot from 20 yards that skimmed the top of the crossbar.

Swaffham’s Jack Defty had the ball in the net on the half hour mark, nodding in a free-kick, but he was flagged offside and, eight minutes before the break, a near post corner saw a Dean Miller header clip the outside of Macrae’s post.

If Gorleston had the better of the first period, Swaffham were on top in the second with the Greens looking for the longer ball to target man McKenna or trying to release the wingers down the slope.

The Greens were working hard but sitting deeper and, as the game entered injury time, the goal Swaffham had been threatening arrived when Alex Vincent weaved his way past three Gorleston challenges to slot the ball in.

Although the Greens were disappointed to drop two points so near the end it was a better performance and a good point to earn and, in the end, a fair result.

With Gorleston and Hadleigh Utd already out of the FA Cup, their fixture, originally scheduled for mid-September, has been brought forward to this weekend. The match at Emerald Park kicks off at 3pm.

The Greens are then on their travels on Wednesday when they visit Fakenham Town.

Gorleston Reserves have continued their unbeaten start to the season. They drew 1-1 at Corton Seltic, with John Bell the scorer.

Then, on Saturday, they won 2-0 at Waveney Reserves with the goals coming from Ashley King and Hayden Ingram.

Tomorrow, (Saturday) they are on their travels again when they visit Newton Flotman.

Great Yarmouth Town face a First Division clash at March Town United, and will be in confident mood after a 2-0 win at Haverhill Borough at the weekend.

The Bloaters are sixth in the table with two wins from two outings and no goals conceded – and games in hand on all the teams above them. Their hosts are six places back, after a win and a defeat.