LATE DRAMA AT BISHOPS STORTFORD

Needham Market recorded their first away win in a month with a 2-1 away win at thirteenth placed Bishop’s Stortford.

Reggie Lambe and Ryan Miles returned to the starting eleven, with Tommy Smith and Joe Neal out through injury.

Despite the hosts breaking the deadlock on 25 minutes through Fabio Virciglio, Myles Cowling equalised with a superb header to cap a well worked move prior to the break.

The Marketmen however returned to Suffolk with all three points, arguably having the better chances with Cowling again finishing neat play in stoppage time.

The result makes it 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats from the Marketmen's last 6 league away games, and responded well to Saturday's defeat at Spalding United.

Great play from the Marketmen worked a good early chance (3'), Seth Chambers fed Ryan Miles who beat his man on the edge of the area to find Myles Cowling whose fierce low strike was held by the diving keeper.

Ryan Miles (10') almost latched onto Kyle Hammond's great ball over the top, with the keeper off his line to gather, as the Marketmen enjoyed more of the possession early on.

Miles meanwhile (18') raced into space on the right wing only to see his fizzed low cutback towards Seth Chambers crucially slid behind for a corner, which was partially cleared as far as Ben Hunter but his rasped strike, free on the right-hand edge of the area, was held by the keeper at head height.

Luke Ingram (21') exploited space on the right-hand but his low cutback was intercepted, before Miles (23') was fed into space on the left-hand edge of the box whose low strike destined for the bottom far corner was blocked.

However, Virciglio (25') exploited time and space to break the deadlock curling home into the bottom far corner from outside the area to break the deadlock.

Hammond (31') saw a dangerous right wing cross flash in-between a handful of Red shirts.

Reggie Lambe (34') hit a 20-yard free-kick over, though James Bradbrook (35') guarded his left-hand, near, post to beat away a shot at his near post from a tight angle.

Needham went close to an equaliser on 38 minutes, superb football saw Chambers win the ball high before holding it up and feeding Ryan Miles driving into the area albeit his strike was vitally deflected wide of the far post.

Needham deservedly equalised on 45+2 minutes, great football saw Ryan Miles beat his full-back on the right wing to find Luke Ingram whose exquisite pinpoint first time cross picked out Myles Cowling free from 8-yards out to bullet head home into the roof of the net.

Myles Cowling (49') appeared to have been tripped inside the area, though appeals were dismissed by the referee.

Needham continued their good start to the second half (52'), Ingram was found open outside the box to tee up Hammond although his strike went over.

Cowling’s (53') low strike was held by the keeper at his right-hand post, while Hammond tried his luck again (54') - rasping wide of the top corner.

The Marketmen went close (56'), Chambers glanced on a long ball to thread Miles through down the left-hand side whose intelligent cutback was shot agonisingly just wide of the far post by the former.

Needham remained the better side in the second half, as Hammond (64’) swung a dangerous right wing corner towards the far post across the goal line but saw it claimed by the keeper.

Chambers was withdrawn for Max Appauh, meanwhile Stortford (71') whipped a great cross-field right wing cross to a man free at the far post who incredibly shot over.

Bradbrook (74') commanded his area well to claim a left wing deep free-kick swung to the far post, after a ten minute spell for the home side.

Appauh (76') beat his man superbly on the right-hand side albeit saw his low ball across the middle cleared, as Needham had a fantastic chance in the 78th minute.

Miles held off his defender to expertly spin him onto the right-hand side whose low ball across the face of goal was turned agonisingly just wide by Appauh at the near post.

Bradbrook (81') held onto a low strike from a tight angle on the left-hand side, before Appauh after a good pass from Saunders worked space on the left-hand side beating two defenders to see his fierce effort deflected behind.

There was late drama as Needham scored a decisive second in the 2nd minute of stoppage time, with Myles Cowling finishing off an excellent move.

Appauh beat his winger with blistering pace onto the left-hand byline to cut it back to Cowling who read play brilliantly to get to the ball first and smash home into the roof of the net.

Manager Tom Rothery said, “absolutely buzzing. Last minute win, I can't beat it. I thought we thoroughly deserved it. Personally, I thought we edged the first half and I thought we were by far the better team in the second half on a very tough pitch, very heavy pitch that made it very difficult, but yeah, really pleased. Obviously the three players out, they're all important. We've only got a squad of 16, so every player out is important. Then obviously we're calling the academy lads up, which is good for them and good experience for them, but yeah, obviously the three players, big miss and then crash on the M11. So Kit didn't get here till 7.10. Lads didn't get here till 7.10. And then I thought we was going to get a later kickoff, but they wouldn't agree to that. So it was a quarter to eight kickoff. So everything that we could have found for an excuse if we wanted it was there, but we didn't. So really pleased the lads have shown a lot of character, and like I said, I thought we deserved to win the game as well.”

" Mylo’s a good player. I think he's really thriving with us in the last couple of months. He's really coming into his own and he's playing well like a lot of the players are. It's nice for him because I think at times we are a bit wasteful sometimes. The amount of chances we create, we don't necessarily always take them or take enough of them. So yes, it's nice that he's been jogging on the spot.

It's a great ball from Hunts. And then Max did really well, beat his player in a really tight position and cut it back for Mylo. So yeah, I'm really pleased for Mylo, pleased for the team. It's nice for Max as well to have a big impact as well.

There's no sort of plan to do it or not do it (score in stoppage time). It's just, you know, sometimes towards the end of the half or towards the end of the game, you know, teams might sit deeper or I can't explain it. It's just one of them things that sometimes, you know, it doesn't happen for you.

I think we're one of the fittest teams in the league. So there's no reason why we can't score late in the game, but yeah, last minute winners are always nice. They're always going to be nice. I'm just really pleased because, like I said, I thought we deserved to win the game. I don't really care what anyone else thinks, to be quite honest.

I thought we were the better team and we got what we deserved. Just had to wait until the last minute for it. We feel like there's a few things that have gone against us, maybe, like I said, in the build-up and things that have happened. So the players were certainly determined to get a result against these tonight. Yeah, they've got it.

So pleased for them.”

Focus however immediately turns to Saturday's home clash with Alvechurch, "another tough game.

Look, you know, it's always nicer to be at home, isn't it? Obviously, their manager left on Sunday. I don't know how they've got on. I genuinely haven't looked at any of the results. I haven't got a clue who's done what tonight, but it'll be a tough game. Every game's tough. I know they've started the season really well. Obviously, it hasn't been going as well for them. Hence why the manager's left.

They've got Carl Storer in interim charge, haven't they? So I'll get as much information as I can on them. But most importantly, we'll concentrate on ourselves. Obviously, see how the injuries are and assess where we're at with them and look to be good again. But every game's tough. We know that.”

MOTM Myles Cowling added, “a big win, thought we deserved the win in the end. It was definitely a tough game given the pitch but I thought the boys dealt with it very well and showed a lot of fight to get back into it in the first half, and then go on to win it.

“Very happy with both goals, both timed very well! Great play by Ryan leading to a great ball from Ings who made it easy for me tbh. The second goal again, great pass from Hunts and brilliant from Max to set me up and luckily it ended up in the net. The first goal I had a lot of time to think about which is never easy, lost it in the floodlights at one point, but managed to head it home. The second was the opposite, first time from the cut back from max.

“Definitely enjoyed that, I think you could tell that we weren’t happy with a point and that was shown in the celebrations. It was a big 3 points tonight after a disappointing Saturday, happy we were able to bounce back so quickly, hopefully we can take that performance and result into Saturday and back that up with another 3 points.”