Football: Scole not at their best, despite victory

Thorpe Village 1, Scole United 4

Scole played poorly, but got past a depleted Thorpe Village side on a poor surface in an Anglian Combination Division Two clash on Saturday.

Scole, not for the first time this season, with the wind behind them abandoned passing the ball and went long ball too often.

Scole got into the final third many times, but poor final balls and crosses meant the Thorpe keeper was largely untested.

However, after 20 minutes Scole opened the scoring when a long ball wasn't cut out by Thorpe and James Edwards broke through and smashed the ball into the top corner past the Thorpe keeper.

Scole then started to play the ball simple and played some good stuff but Thorpe had two good chances in quick succession. Firstly Scole gave the ball away in midfield and Jack Buckmaster made a good one-on-one stop before a carbon copy incident a couple of minutes later saw Adam Solley scramble clear.

Just before half-time Shaun Flint went one-on-one with the keeper, but a very heavy final touch allowed the keeper to block.

After some stern words at half-time, Scole went into the wind and looked to get the ball on the deck. They were soon rewarded when Edwards again used his strength to finish a cross and put Scole two up.

This should have been the time for Scole to kick on, but Thorpe came back hard. Thorpe got one back when Callum Ellis seemed to be pushed in the back and handled falling down, but the referee awarded the free-kick to Thorpe and their played curled it in brilliantly.

Scole were hanging on, but made changes with the blistering pace of David Bloomfield making a return for the first time in a few weeks, and also changing the formation to 4-5-1.

This move paid off immediately when Edwards hit the post with a powerful volley, although the striker got both his and Scole's third a few minutes later to make the game safe. This broke Thorpe and several minutes later Ben Cussons jinked past three players before using his left foot to plant in a finish past the Thorpe keeper.

So not a good performance from Scole, but they played very well and lost earlier on in the season so winning when playing poorly is more than acceptable.

MoM: James Edwards.