Diss recover from shock defeat

Diss Town, who do not have a match this weekend, bounced back from a defeat by bottom team Long Melford on Saturday to beat Fakenham 2-0 on Tuesday night.

Diss Town, who do not have a match this weekend, bounced back from a defeat by bottom team Long Melford on Saturday to beat Fakenham 2-0 on Tuesday night.

Diss completed their home fixtures as they were defeated 4-1 by a team bottom of the table and without a win in their previous 13 league matches.

The final home record for the Tangerines is seven wins, four draws, seven defeats and a goals tally of 30-22.

It has to be said that Diss lacked the fighting spirit, although they did take an early lead when Ben Deacon fired home from a tight angle at the far post after Matty Ryland's deep in-swinging free-kick from the right touchline eluded the desperate grasps of keeper Floyd Croll. This gave the home supporters hope of things to come with seven minutes gone.

However, when the going gets tough, the tough get going and with the Tangerines' inept attitude it was the visitors who showed more desire and equalised in the 33rd minute when Steve Chisholm showed the hosts how to score.

He got on the end of a superb knock-down by former AFC Sudbury defender Chris Tracey and promptly hammered home an unstoppable shot from eight yards to draw the sides level.

Long Melford started the second half with intent when Tracey smashed his header against the crossbar from a Dan Statham corner. Then a minute later Town an Ed Cussons corner found Gavin Norman with his back to goal but as he turned and shot he found Melford keeper Croll in good form, pushing the ball away for a corner.

With 62 minutes gone the unthinkable happened when Town's defence fell asleep and Dan Grindrod headed home from close in after Tracey headed on a Danny Manser long throw.

Shock turned to horror which turned to total and utter despair two minutes later when Chisholm scored his second.

The Diss defence failed to pick up Tracey who again headed down into the path of Chisholm to score from close in for a 3-1 lead in the 64th minute at another Manser long throw.

Alex Jarvie came on for Ben Deacon and his first touch saw him blaze over from six yards out at the far post after Cussons and Ryland had taken a quick free-kick.

The goal of the day came in the 88th minute when Melford sub Carl Daw scored an absolute humdinger from 20 yards, giving the visitors a 4-1 victory which was only marred by the dismissal of the scorer for taking his shirt off in celebration after an earlier caution for kicking the ball away.

MoM: Matty Ryland.