Fakenham Town caretaker boss Alex Walpole has praised his side’s “never-say-die” attitude, which helped the Ghosts take all three points from their visit to Wroxham on Tuesday.
The fighting spirit shown by Fakenham’s young side was key to their success at Trafford Park; a resilient and determined performance saw the Clipbush Park outfit register back-to-back League wins for just the second time this season.
Kyle Plumb proved to be a constant thorn in the hosts’ side, the striker followed up two goals in the 2-0 win against Clacton on Saturday with another brace at the Yachtsmen’s expense to the delight of his manager.
“It is hard to single out players on a night like tonight, when everyone has done so well, but Plumbie was superb again,” said Walpole.
“His work rate was excellent, he caused their defenders plenty of problems and at times they couldn’t handle him.
“Everyone put a real shift in tonight, we defended strongly when we had to and were not afraid to put bodies on the line and showed great mental strength to keep going when Wroxham kept pegging us back.
“The mentality of the lads is the strongest it has ever been, they are playing with confidence and they never give up. It is a never-say-die attitude to the end and that has earned us three really good points tonight against a very good Wroxham side.”
Lewis Sturman opened the scoring after 15 minutes, the midfielder produced an excellent strike to send a free kick from a central position 30 yards out into the back of Will Viner’s net against his old club.
The Ghosts were unlucky not to extend their lead before half-time, but were made to pay for wasting precious chances when Tom Matthews levelled the scores from the edge of penalty area after 49 minutes.
Fakenham regained the lead in controversial circumstances on the hour mark, Josh Williams’ headed flick was helped over the line by Plumb from close range but the hosts were furious insisting the goal shouldn’t have stood as the ball looked to strike Plumb’s hand.
Five minutes later and Plumb bagged his second, Viner was caught in no-man’s land and his defence were too slow to react to stop the Fakenham striker curling the ball into the net from an acute angle to give his side a two-goal cushion.
A spectacular long-range solo effort from Ryan Miles pulled one back for the hosts with 20 minutes to play and with 11 to play Wroxham were level, again in controversial fashion, Connor Ingram the scorer but Fakenham insisted the ball was kicked out of the hands of keeper Luke Pearson. Walpole was sent to the stands for his protests.
In a game full of twists and turns, Fakenham had the final word when substitute Jason Day made it 4-3 with three minutes left, when he fired into the top corner from 25 yards out to leave the Wroxham back-line and keeper stunned.
Fakenham travel to Stanway Rovers this weekend, kick off 3.00pm Saturday looking to create some breathing space between themselves and the sides around them.
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