Fakenham seconds hosted Broadland-Great Yarmouth II on Saturday in their penultimate EC3 North fixture of the season and recorded an excellent 38-8 win.

The game revolved around the battle between the slight dominance of the Broadland’s forwards and Fakenham’s pacey backs, with the hosts’ play winning the day.

Fakenham struck first through Josh Gee who marked his return from an enforced absence when he outpaced his opposite number to score a try which Mark Allen converted. Centre Luke Taylor then made the most of his opportunity and scored an unconverted try wide on the left wing.

The visitors reduced the arrears with a penalty before Allen squeezed through a gap to score under the posts and convert it himself to make the score 19-3.

Broadlands pushed forward again and scored a try which they deserved after their earlier play, but the kick was missed.

Fakenham missed a penalty of their own, but this was forgotten minutes later when George Ready scored a try right under the posts to make an easy kick for Allen to take the score to 26-8. The Fakenham forwards had played well in the first half and were rewarded when Rory Singleton scored almost on half-time with Luke Taylor converting to take the score to 33-8.

The second half was a much closer affair with both sides enjoying periods on possession and territory.

Fakenham scored the only points of the second half when a handling move put Taylor into space and he showed a clean pair of heels to the defence to score the try which moved the score to 38-8 with the kick being missed.

Fakenham chose one of their hard-working forwards, Matthew King, as their man-of-the-match and he thoroughly deserved it for his direct running and defensive work.

Debutant William Doughty made an impressive start, showing both pace and maturity above his years and is a welcome addition to the fold.

Fakenham II have their last league match away to Lowestoft & Yarmouth III on Saturday (3pm). Fakenham first team - who ended the season as champions rather than the seconds, as was suggested in last week’s paper - are still waiting to see who they will play the next round of the Norfolk Plate.