Diss Town 0, Halstead Town 3DISS Town returned to league action after a break of almost three weeks and were well beaten by a Halstead team that are playing catch up with their league fixtures and seem certain to be one of the teams pushing for a promotion slot at the end of the season.

Diss Town 0, Halstead Town 3

DISS Town returned to league action after a break of almost three weeks and were well beaten by a Halstead team that are playing catch up with their league fixtures and seem certain to be one of the teams pushing for a promotion slot at the end of the season.

Diss Manager Rob Taylor was without Brendan Foley due to a one match suspension, Jason Hunt was on holiday, Paul Nichols is likely to be a long term injury absentee and Jake Burton and Stuart Jenkinson also had injuries.

Xavier Huckle moved through in the third minute to force Matt Walker to dive to make one of his few stops of the afternoon. Judd Coe sent a fine pass from inside his own half and wide on the left into space for the unmarked Ryan Sutton to have time to control and shoot past the advancing Matt Webster in the 15th minute for the opening goal.

The Diss reply was for Euan Craigie to move and had a well-struck shot from an acute angle held by the goalkeeper in the 24th minute. Two minutes later Webster was forced to save from Ray Turner who had used his strength to hold off a challenge from Dave Adams.

The other two Halstead goals both came from their tall central players winning headers in the penalty area. In the 34th minute a free kick from Mark Emerson was headed on by Lee Townrow for Tom Devaux to shoot in from six yards out. Adams had a header ruled out just before half time for a push by Christian Money.

The third goal came in the 49th minute when Devaux beat Webster in an aerial challenge at the far post to head the ball across for Turner to have a simple head in from three yards out.

Diss had a good last 20 minutes but the game was already lost.

The closest to a goal came in the 81st minute when a long throw in from George Watts-Sturrock caused problems and Townrow headed against his own bar. Ben Soanes had forced Walker to push a low shot round a post in the 70th minute after exchanging passes with Huckle.

Substitutes Steve Wright and Jon Abbott had late shots deflected off target for corners but at the other end Webster was forced to make a block to keep out a shot from Liam Morley.

Diss: Matt Webster, Johnny King, Stuart Garner, Christian Money, Dave Adams, Mark Shadrack, Xavier Huckle, George Watts-Sturrock, Euan Craigie, Ben Soanes, Sam Bryant. Diss subs: Steve Wright (for Bryant 58 mins), Peter Hooks (for Craigie 39 mins), Jon Abbott (for Shadrack 84 mins) and Jake McDowall.

Attendance: 165.

Match Sponsor: Toybox Toys of St. Nicholas Street, Diss.