Braintree Town Res 4 Diss Town 3

Just 26 supporters were present as Diss Town lost a seven-goal thriller to Braintree Reserves, who play their home games at Long Melford.

They saw the Tangerines dominate the first half against a young Braintree team and they could easily have ended the first half with a four-goal lead. From the kick-off, the Tangerines moved the ball around well, with Jason Cole, Dale Barrett and young Callum Olpin proving a constant threat.

However the Tangerines' strikers failed to convert at least four good chances and just before half-time, the home side scored against the run of play, when Matt Baxter's volley deceived keeper Matt Powley.

The second half started well for the Tangerines, when Dale Barrett won the ball straight from the Braintree kick-off and cut in from the right and struck a volley past keeper David Leader. However, the Tangerines' celebrations were short-lived as a free-kick on 50 minutes by Braintree's Romario Dunne which Powley was unable to deal with quickly made it 2-1.

After 60 minutes, the Tangerines got back into the game. Jason Armes took a free-kick and Danny Self scored from the rebound, to level the scores at 2-2. Braintree substitute Kofi Gyebi then picked the ball up on the edge of area before scoring in impressive fashion to make it 3-2 lead on 68 minutes.

Diss had the chance to level again from the penalty spot on 75 minutes following a foul by Lewis Soraf but with his first touch of the game substitute Chris Holmes put the ball too close to Braintree keeper Leader, who was able to make the save.

The Tangerines continued to push forward and a handball in the area, resulted in another penalty on 80 minutes. This time Armes took the spot-kick and scored to level the match again at 3-3.

With only a few minutes left on the clock, Gyebi saw the Diss keeper off his line and volleyed a superb shot that looped over Powley and under the bar for the best goal of the game, to give the home side a 4-3 victory.

With no first team game on Saturday the Tangerines next match is in the fourth round of the Norfolk Senior Cup on Tuesday, November 24, when they host Dereham Town.