Missing five regulars through holiday or suspension, Fakenham Town still ran out comfortable 5-2 winners over Leiston Reserves in their final home game of the season.

It didn’t take long for the opening Fakenham goal to arrive when, after 12 minutes, Tom Blake had a good effort blocked and the ball came back to Alby Matthews whose deflected shot looped over the keeper.

The Fakenham second came courtesy of Blake who received a ball wide on the right, cut in and comfortably beat the keeper from five metres out. It soon became 3-0 when Blake went down in the area for a soft penalty and captain for the day Shane Akers converted from the spot.

Leiston nearly pulled one back when a shot from 15 metres out hit the underside of the crossbar but Josh Youngs and Alex Walpole were dealing very calmly with whatever was thrown their way.

The second half saw Leiston get back more into the game and on 62 minutes Jourdan Kiwomya clinically put the ball past Tom Coombe.

It took not much more than 60 seconds before Fakenham scored their fourth and best goal when a free-kick was awarded some 30 metres outside the area and Connor Charlesworth’s bullet effort got over the wall and left the keeper stranded.

With a comfortable 4-1 lead, Luke Gray and Gus Matthew came on in place of Ricky Claxton and Matthews to freshen things up.

Then, with 77 minutes gone, 16-year-old Matthew Grand made his first team debut in place of Frazer Field.

With 10 minutes to go, Blake scored his second and Fakenham’s fifth when Gus Matthews broke past the last defender, approached the keeper and generously passed for a simple tap-in.

With a couple of minutes left, Leiston scored their second when Coombe was forced to come out quickly to block but lost out in the tackle to Michael Carrigan who had a open goal.

The win took the Ghosts’ unbeaten run to 15 and maintained fourth place in the league with three league matches to go, the first being a trip to Haverhill Borough on Saturday. They then visit fifth placed March Town on April 22 followed a week later with a trip to bottom placed Wisbech St Mary. Then there’s the League Challenge Cup Final against Long Melford at Diss Town on Easter Monday to look forward to.