Thurlow Premier Stowmarket Town 7 Fakenham Town 1 Stowmarket Town moved back up to second in the table after thrashing Fakenham Town 7-1 at Greens Meadow, writes Alex Moss.
In front of a crowd of 151, Stow welcomed back their supporters to Greens Meadow for the first time in 2018 with an impressive win which, coupled with Coggeshall Town’s defeat to Brantham Athletic, was enough to see them climb back up to second in the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division table.
Before kick off both teams excellently observed a minute’s silence in memory of Zoe Coldron, the wife of former Stow assistant manager, and Reserves and Under-18s manager, Shane, who sadly passed away this week.
The Old Gold and Blacks opened the scoring with just 80 seconds on the clock, as the returning David Kempson drilled the ball home after Dave Cowley’s corner had caused havoc in the Fakenham box.
Stow doubled their lead on 15 minutes when Ollie Brown’s cross was flicked forward for Josh Mayhew to shoot from close range for his 38th goal of the season.
Kempson picked out Amar Lewis on the edge of the box, who had plenty of time and space to pick his spot and send the ball past Tommy Rix in the Fakenham goal to make it 3-0 on 34 minutes.
A minute later it was 4-0 as Cowley’s free kick crashed off the crossbar and landed in the back of the net, before the visitors pulled one back in the 38th minute when Josh Youngs’ header from a free kick went past Stow goalkeeper Craig Brand.
But it was Stow who had the final say in the first half, as three minutes before the break Mayhew crossed for Luke Read, who dived in from close range to head into the corner to regain his side’s four-goal cushion.
Substitute George Bugg was brought down in the penalty area and Mayhew finished from the spot for his second of the game and 39th of the campaign.
Stow added a seventh in injury time when captain Brown scrambled the ball over the line to put the finishing touches to a sixth win in a row.
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