AFC Sudbury boss Mark Morsley delighted with solid away display at Soham Town Rangers

‘The new normal’ is what Mark Morsley hopes he will soon be calling a resilient AFC Sudbury away display, after gaining a blueprint for it in a pleasing 1-0 victory at Soham Town Rangers.

A first clean sheet of the season was well deserved on Tuesday with a solid 90 minutes that in many ways lent itself to that football cliché of ‘a perfect away display’.

Ben Hunter’s deflected strike from a breakaway move just past the hour mark proved to be enough for only AFC’s second win of their Pitching In Isthmian League campaign, in what was their sixth North Division match.

It left their manager with a big smile on his face and believing a corner has been turned after a rocky start to 2020/21.

“It was very un-Sudbury like, you may say,” he quipped.

“I thought tactically we were right; we got our shape right.

“Soham are clearly a good side, they are third in the league. We had an idea of what they wanted to do and how they wanted to play.

“We were happy to allow them to have a lot of possession in dangerous area and be solid. And actually I felt it worked really well for us in that their non-ball players had possession which they gave away a lot.

“We looked good defensively, which we haven’t; it was our first zero against, which is massive.

“I said to the lads before the game ‘I will learn more about you boys on nights like this, away at Soham when it has been raining all day, than any other game. And I learnt that actually, I have got lads out there who are not just good but can really battle. It was a great performance.”

Sudbury moved the ball well in the opening exchanges but it was Soham who had the first clear sight of goal with Declan Rogers aware he should have hit the target from Ally Conway’s 10th minute cut back.

In the 14th minute Danny Collinge drew the first save of the night, forcing Josh Pope to push his header from Hunter’s high swinging corner up over his crossbar.

The Yellows continued to threaten from corners with King and Collinge – twice more – heading wide while a shove in the area on Joe Grimwood went unspotted.

Soham went on to move the ball well but as in the whole game, the final ball was lacking and Sudbury sat in and soaked up the pressure well.

In the second half it was more of the same with Pope continuing to be the busier of the keepers, doing well to narrow the angle before pulling off a diving save to deny the lively Machaya.

But he could do nothing to prevent the visitors taking the lead in the 62nd minute.

Sudbury raided down the right following a Soham corner and Machaya pulled the ball back to the edge of the area where Reece Harris dummied before Hunter sent a powerful well-struck shot that found the bottom left corner via a deflection.

Soham’s changes from the bench saw a front three formed with substitutes Toby Andrews and Joe Carden giving their attack a new dimension.

Declan Rogers curled wide from the edge of the area in the 74th minute while Carden’s cross-cum-shot struck the outside of the right-hand post as they stepped up their search for an equaliser.

But Collins, aside from having to recover a bad pass out of his box and punching a late ball into the box out, had little to be worried about as the final ball continued to be lacking amid some resolute defending.

Sudbury: Collins, O’Malley, Whight, Holland, Grimwood, Collinge, Machaya (Girling 85’), Hunter, King (Marks 77’), Harris (Andrews 75’), Maycock. Unsued sub: Skubich.

Attendance: 191

Free Press Man of the Match: Danny Collinge. His defending set the tone.