Needham Market battle hard but begin 2025 with a 2-1 defeat to Peterborough Sports.
Kevin Horlock's side made 2 changes to the draw at Kings Lynn on Boxing Day, Kyle Hammond and Liam Cross started on the bench with Tommy Smith and Seth Chambers starting.
The Marketmen went into the break 2-0 down, despite appeals for the ball crossing the line for a consolation being turned down just before the break, although Adam Mills did halve the deficit after the restart on his 200th game for the club.
Sports however started brighter, forcing a save from Marcus Garnham after 35 seconds. Appeals for handball in the build-up were waved away by the referee before Michael Gyasi was found in space just outside the box before thundering a shot towards the 'keeper's left-hand corner, though the latter flew across to beat the shot away.
Sports broke the deadlock in the sixth minute, ex-Needham Max Booth pounced on mis-communication to tap into an empty net from close range.
Needham on the other hand grew into the game well and enjoyed large spells of possession, but struggled to test Peter Crook in the first half.
Watford loanee Jake Watkiss was threaded through, down the left wing into a dangerous area, by Tommy Smith before picking out Luke Ingram with a clever low cutback but the forward couldn't quite control the ball on 15 minutes.
Four minutes later, Sports saw a shot blocked following a corner, prior to seeing a low shot deflected narrowly wide of the bottom far, left-hand, corner on 24 minutes.
Luke Steele's visitors doubled their lead seconds later, as Michael Gyasi lashed home into the bottom far right-hand corner, after a corner was headed off the line.
Needham however had a great chance three minutes later, as Peter Crook advances outside of his box before clashing with Seth Chambers - as the latter beat him to a long ball forward.
Needham retained possession as Ingram found Watkiss inside the box, whose low shot lacked power and was held by the diving Crook.
Northampton Town loanee Josh Tomlinson then superbly blocked a fierce shot from outside the box on 29 minutes, while Garnham was on hand to make another superb save four minutes later.
A left wing corner was diverted towards the near post but for an incredible reaction save from the shot-stopper to dive down and keep it out, albeit the offside flag was up anyway.
Crook meanwhile was off his line in time to just beat Seth Chambers to Ingram's flick on following a great ball over the top on 35 minutes.
The Reds though went close again three minutes later as Jake Watkiss' corner was missed by Crook - straying off his line - with Josh Tomlinson finding Seth Chambers, although the latter's shot was blocked behind by a defender.
The away side, on the other hand, were offside as they shot wide of the bottom corner after 40 minutes, while Needham felt they'd found the net 4 minutes later.
Appeals for a goal however were waved away after the ball seemed to cross Crook's goal-line before he gathered the ball.
Needham made a half-time alteration as Tomlinson was replaced by Kyle Hammond, before arguably dominating the second half.
Neat passing play saw Luke Ingram fed into space before feeding Chambers through onto the right-hand edge of the box, whose low tame shot across goal was held by Crook on 48 minutes.
The visitors then rattled the face of the crossbar from 30-yards out on 53 minutes, before Needham almost halved the deficit two minutes later.
Watkiss' audacious free-kick from distance picked out MOTM Keiran Morphew racing in at point blank range, only to see his header held by the diving Crook.
Horlock's side opted for a double switch just before the hour mark, withdrawing Tevan Allen and Seth Chambers in place of Adam Mills and Brackley Town loanee Liam Cross, followed by Kylle Hammond meeting a brilliant left wing cross, exploiting acres of space inside the box, albeit the midfielder's effort towards the far corner was held by the diving stopper two minutes later.
Hammond was then in the right place at the right time at the other end on 65 minutes, clearing a shot, across goal from in space inside the box, off the line at his left hand post as well as the resulting low shot.
That clearance sparked a deserved goal back for the Suffolk side two minutes later, whose efforts arguably deserved a share of the spoils, Ben Hunter set Adam Mills through clear on goal with a sumptuous ball over the top for the substitute to expertly run onto and mark his 200th Needham appearance by lobbing the onrushing keeper into the roof of the net, for his 47th goal for the club.
Needham then made another double substitution straight after the goal, introducing Jamie McGrath and Reggie Lambe for Jake Watkiss and Tommy Smith, with Sports shooting just wide of the left-hand post in the 71st minute.
At the other end, Needham saw appeals for a push in the back on Ingram dismissed by the referee as Reggie Lambe saw a ferocious shot, that appeared goal bound, blocked by a defender a minute later.
Adam Mills however was the first player to be cautioned on 79 minutes after a foul, before Marcus Garnham narrowed down the angle brilliantly three minutes later to advance off his line and smother Kaine Felix's shot away.
The visitors shot just wide of the bottom far corner on 84 minutes, before the visitors picked up a yellow card a minute later.
Dan Morphew met the resulting free-kick, only for Crook to hold onto his header at goal, while Crook dived across to his near post to just hold onto a deflected shot at his near post.
Needham start 2025 with a disappointing defeat, but will look to rectify it when league leaders Curzon Ashton visit the Ecologic Stadium Bloomfields on Saturday (3pm).
Goalscorer Adam Mills reflects on today's defeat.
DK: Despite the result, but a good second-half performance.
AM: Yeah, it was good. I think we need to get going from the get-go. It takes a bit of time to get in the game, but to get a kick up our backside. And then, yeah, second-half, we were decent.Against King's Lynn, we've come out flying second-half.
DK: After you came off the bench, you had an instant impact, getting the goal back and almost getting a point.
AM: Yeah, it was a good ball from Hunts. He obviously recognised that I was running forward, looked up at the keepers off his line and put it over his head. But, I mean, 2-1, you're in the game. There's probably 15 minutes left. I don't think we counted on that.We didn't get forward enough since then. They still created chances. We didn't create many chances from that. Obviously, Reggie made an impact when he came on. Hunts' put in a late cross in the second half, across goal. But, yeah.
DK: From a personal perspective, you marked your 200th appearance with a goal!
AM: Yeah, I didn't realise it was 200, to be honest. But it comes quicker, I suppose, when you've been here and there and come back many times. But, yeah, I'm pleased to make 200 appearances. Coming through the academy with, obviously, Kevin. It's good. It's good achievement, I'd say. 200 appearances is nowhere near Keiran and Ingers. But still, a long way to go.
DK: Hopefully, respond from today with a big result on Saturday.
AM: Hopefully. I hope we do. I really do hope we do. It's getting to the point where we need to pick up points now. I think that's 22 games. We need to start picking them up. Otherwise, it's going to get messy down the bottom. Points will get further and further away, and then we're playing catch-up. We (him and Luke Ingram) had a look at the end. There's still, like you say, six points (from safety). One of them's got a game in hand. We've got a game in hand over one, I think. So that's, hopefully, give us a little boost.
DK:There's still a lot of confidence to take from how well you've have been doing this season.
AM: Yeah, I don't think we've been terrible. We're in games. We've played big teams in this league. We've travelled miles and got off the coach. We've put in a performance against teams that are far away and a bigger club like Scunthorpe. Playing Scunthorpe here, that's probably one of the best games we've had. I don't know. There's a few good games we've had where we've come away with either a point or nothing, which, that's football. So, you have to take it on the chin.
Nathan Munson reflects on today's defeat.
DK: A bit disappointing not to get a result today, but a good performance, especially in the second half.
NM: Yeah, I think so. A bit disappointed that we didn't pick up a point or more in the end. Second half, I think similar to the Boxing Day game at King's Lynn, was a strong 45 minutes, but we left ourselves a bit too much to do really in the first half. Obviously, it was a lot of rain today. The ground staff didn't get the game on, but the pitch was inevitably quite heavy. I think Marco's just slipped as the ball came out, and then there's probably a lack of communication as the lad's been able to nip in and toe it home. So, yeah, that was a sort of disappointing start from our perspective. And then the second one, I didn't get a real good look at how it broke to him, but he's finished it with his left foot in the far corner, quite a good finish. I don't know the build-up play before that, I couldn't really see very well. So, it gave us a bit to do, we didn't create a lot (in the) first half, but we did have the one where there was a question mark whether or not it went over the line. Obviously, we're not in a very good position in the dugout to determine that, but it was a close call and the fans behind the goal were sort of indicating it might have been over the line, but other than that, we didn't create a lot. But in the second half, we did get a bit more on the front foot. We sort of improved, a little bit more endeavour, a little bit more fight about us, I think, got the goal back, and then we're sort of hoping we can go again. I think if we'd have got one back before half-time, it would have put a different complexion on it. I mean, just as I was coming off, the fans were sort of ranting and raving, saying it was over. Clearly, they're not independent, but they were quite adamant it was over the line. But that's gone, it's not been given. We still had 45 minutes to put it right and we did part of that in so much as the performance was better, but I think it does leave Tom, Kev and I, to a certain extent, scratching our heads because the word at the minute is consistency and we just lack that a little bit, which is quite frustrating. King's Lynn would have gone top had they won and we outplayed them in the second half, I think, even though our manager was of that view. And then today, we haven't really backed that up with the performance that we wanted to against a Peterborough Sports side that battled well on the day, actually. Credit to them.
DK: A great finish from Milzy from a great ball over the top from Hunts, gave us the platform to go on and try and get a resulting .
NM: Yeah, it did. Yeah, it gave us a platform. We all hope that that's going to be the springboard. Great little ball through from Hunts, as you say. Good work from Milzy. He sort of ghosted in. He covers the ground well, Milzy, and it was a lovely finish. We still had plenty of time left, 25, 30 minutes, plenty of time. And we're just sort of hoping we'll get another chance. We had some nice moments, but we weren't able to get the goal that we thought for our improved second half performance might have warranted.
DK: Next up, we're back at home against Curzon. Hopefully, make amends for today.
NM: Yeah, hopefully. Obviously, Curzon, again, good side at the top of the table a long while ago since we lost to them in the first game of the season. They've been on a good run since. We are very well aware that we need to get some points up. That's our way forward. It's not been too bad, but here at Needham, we've not been able to get the results that we required. So far, we know that that needs to change and it needs to change in a hurry. And so we'll come again Saturday and we'll give everything. Hopefully, there's not too much more rain forecast. We'll get a game, we'll get a spectacle and we'll do everything we can to get the lads set up for the three points.
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