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NARROW DEFEAT FOR THE MARKETMEN

Needham Market's two game winning run ended with a harsh 1-0 home defeat to Farsley Celtic, after a goal inside the last ten minutes against the run of play.


Kevin Horlock's side named an unchanged team, but saw Kyle Hammond, Dylan Williams and Adam Mills return to the bench, following injuries, with Cameron Jessup and Jayden Ashbourne playing for the Reserves.


The Marketmen dominated the possession, and had the better chances throughout, more so in the second half, arguably creating enough to win the game.


The Marketmen started brightly, with Jake Dye seeing a low shot from distance blocked after 6 minutes, while Jamie McGrath and Jacob Lay's pressure on the visiting defence saw the latter winning possession and feeding the forward into the box whose curled shot on the turn was swatted away awkwardly by on-loan Leeds goalkeeper Ombang a minute later.


Horlock admitted post match, that he felt it was 3 points dropped for his side, despite a good performance, with good passing playing seeing some neat quick passes result in an sumptuous right wing cross just evades Jacob Lay at the far post after 11 minutes.


Two minutes later, Tevan Allen's left wing free-kick was lifted back into the box to on-loan Northampton defender Josh Tomlinson, whose backwards header at goal was held by Ombang.


At the other end on 16 minutes, Ryan Watson saw a shot from distance swerve comfortably wide of Danny Cullum's bottom far, left-hand, corner, before great play from Needham striker Seth Chambers saw the forward win possession and brilliantly hold off his defender to drive into the box, only to shoot just over.


The visitors then saw Tom Allan's left-hand free-kick punched away by the quick reactions of Cullum, quickly across to his bottom near corner to deny Farsley's first and one of a few notable chances on 20 minutes.


Two minutes later, the hosts had a great chance to break the deadlock, a quick counter-attack down the right wing saw Allen's audacious pinpoint cross find Chambers at close range - whose header glanced narrowly wide.


The visitors though rattled the woodwork on 33 minutes, with the last opportunity of the first half, Cole Hyde's thunderous shot cannoned back into play off the underside of the crossbar.


After the restart, Needham would ultimately rue missed chances, but arguably deserved a point at minimum, with the visitors rarely threatening Cullum.


First a 51st minute far post header, from a free-kick, was well held by the former Ipswich Town shot-stopper at head height, followed by a low shot from the edge of the box which was equally dealt with by Cullum at his near post.


Horlock's side withdrew Chambers for Adam Mills on 55 minutes, while Ben Hunter then picked up possession following Allen's 58th minutes free-kick, as the midfielder broke smartly into the box but saw his cross just evade Lay at the far post.


The home side then went agonisingly close to breaking the deadlock on the hour mark, Lay latched onto a great long ball over the top to race through on goal, only to shoot just wide into the near side-netting.


Hunter was then withdrawn for Kyle Hammond, while a brilliant block thwarted the Reds from opening the scoring on 65 minutes, a quick short corner from Hammond saw the substitute exchange a quick one-two with Allen before crossing into the area - forcing Ombang to fly out and punch it away from Lay, albeit only as far as McGrath whose close range shot was blocked by a defender.


Needham continued to rally for the opening goal, almost finding it two minutes later, a great cross-field pass found McGrath, who in turn fed Jake Dye through on the overlap, into the box, the defender's cutback found Lay in space from 10-yards out, whose shot went over.


Needham then made a double change as Lay and captain Keiran Morphew - in a precautionary change - were replaced by Dylan Williams and Harley Curtis, before Adam Mills trapped a great long ball out onto the left wing whose audacious cross-shot was tipped over the crossbar by the keeper on 76 minutes.


Ombang then advanced off his line to beat away Hammond's dangerous left wing free-kick into the danger area a minute later, before the visitors hit with a 82nd minute sucker punch to take all 3 points. Against the run of play, Danny Greenfield picked up possession from a throw-in to find the bottom left-hand corner from outside the box.


Needham looked to rescue a point though, as Williams' cross back in on 88 minutes was headed just wide by Tomlinson at the far post, before Dye weaved into the box but curled his shot over in the 3rd minute of the seventh minute of stoppage time.


Match sponsors Peter and Sarah Forster chose Tommy Smith as Needham's man of the match, in front of a healthy crowd of 519, as Needham switch focus to their Emirates FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round home clash with Vanarama National League South side St Albans City (3pm).

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