Haverhill Borough 2 Diss Town 1

Diss Town failed to build on their spectacular win the previous week as they slid to a narrow defeat at Haverhill.

The Tangerines were without Danny Self and Callum Olpin and seemed to miss the creative contribution that they bring to the side.

After last week's goal-fest against Braintree Reserves, when they found the net on nine occasions, the visitors created very few good chances by comparison during this match.

The defeat left Diss in 10th position in the Thurlow Nunn League Division One table, with 28 points from 20 matches.

The turning point of the game was a controversial quickly-taken free- kick that gave the home side a two goal cushion in the second half.

The Tangerines pulled a goal back but were unable to create any real goal-scoring opportunities to get anything from this game.

The pitch passed an inspection at 12.15am but the pitch was extremely heavy and sometimes the ball moved in an unpredictable fashion.

Play was fairly even for the first quarter of this match, but the home side should have taken the lead in the 25th minute when Swallow failed to connect from close range when a low cross found him unmarked in the centre of the penalty area.

However, Borough did take the lead three minutes later when Staines dribbled into the penalty area and found Bone who turned the ball in to make it 1-0 to the home side.

The Tangerines brought on Sam Page for the second half, replacing Chris Greenslade, to give them more fire power to try and get back into the game.

Diss were enjoying more pressure at the start of the second period but were still unable to trouble Smith in the Borough goal unduly.

In the 56th minute the Tangerines suffered a setback when Borough took a quick free-kick on the edge of the area, with the Tangerines still organising their defensive wall. Staines chipped the ball accurately into the top right-hand corner and keeper Will Izod was unable to get across quickly enough to keep the ball out of the net.

Izod protested strongly to referee Bigg, but he waved away the Tangerines' protests and Diss found themselves 2-0 down.

With more than half an hour still to play Diss renewed their efforts to get on the scoresheet.

In the 64th minute they won a free-kick on the edge of the area and Sam Page sent a glancing header past Smith to make the score 2-1, which gave the Tangerines some hope of salvaging something from the match.

With time running out, David Norman came on as a substitute for the Tangerines in place of Sean Brown, as Diss gambled by putting another forward on the pitch.

With the visitors pushing forward, they were vulnerable on the break and Borough had an excellent chance to regain their two-goal cushion, but Pruden fired over the crossbar from close range.

The Tangerines had a period of sustained pressure in the final minutes but the home defence stood firm and took all three points.

The Tangerines are at home on Saturday when they play Stowmarket Town, kick-off 3pm.

The Suffolk side are five points behind Diss in the table, having played one less game.

Diss Town: Will Izod, Jack Hood, Stefan Gilding, Chris Gibbons, Dale Barrett, Jason Armes, Joe Manning, Chris Greenslade, Sean Brown, Kyle Downes, Jamie George.

Subs: Page (for Greenslade 46 mins), Norman (for Brown 92 mins), Powley, Priestley.

Attendance: 89.