Downham Town were the only West Norfolk side to win on Saturday, while Fakenham Town claimed a point and Heacham suffered defeat.
Ten-man Town were 2-0 winners at Heybridge Swifts as they made it back-to-back league wins in the Isthmian League North, Fakenham picked up a point from a 1-1 draw in their top-of-the-table clash at Thetford in the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division and Heacham were beaten 4-0 by Haverhill Rovers in the same division.
Downham boss Dale Stokes was pleased with his side’s display at Swifts, saying: “I’m delighted for the boys. It was a real team performance.
“We seem to always pull something out of the bag when we are depleted like that.
“We only had three defenders to choose from, with four missing, so Nick (Castellan) had to play right back and we went with a different formation.
“I think the start we had gave the players a boost of confidence early on and it set the tone, as we were causing them a lot of problems.
“We should have been ahead inside 10 minutes and then when the ref gave them a penalty, it felt like a ‘here we go again’ moment.
“Thankfully, JJ (Briggs) saved it and from there on, although we’ve had to deal with a lot of balls into the box, he’s not had many saves to make, even when we had 10 men for the last 25 minutes.
“We fully deserved the win and we played some brilliant stuff at times.”
Charlie Royle opened the scoring at Scraley Road 11 minutes into the second half for his third goal in two games.
Lagshan Sivakumar doubled Downham’s advantage eight minutes later against a home outfit who offered very little threat.
The visitors, who were only able to name two substitutes due to a shortage of players, even survived the sending-off of Dylan Edge for picking up a second yellow card in the second half.
Stokes added: “What pleased me the most was the fight and desire they showed with 10 men, when you pull together like that and you do both sides of the game.
“We’ve had plenty of games already this season where we’ve been good on the ball but looked a bit soft without it. Today showed why you have to do both sides of it, and when you do, you get the rewards.”
Downham are without a game on Saturday, with scheduled opponents Tilbury still involved in the FA Trophy.
Over at Munford Road, Fakenham were denied a huge win with virtually the last kick of the game in front of a bumper crowd of 255.
The prolific Jake Watts headed the Ghosts into a slender lead at half-time.
That’s the way it stayed until Josh Wells’ free-kick deflected its way to Antwan Ebanks-Blake who fired home a dramatic equaliser deep in stoppage time.
Saturday’s meeting was the first of three between the two sides over the next few weeks, with cup clashes in both the Norfolk Senior Cup and FA Vase on the horizon.
Fakenham entertain Yarmouth Town at the Daly Group Stadium on Saturday.
The Magpies of Heacham were unable to build on their first win of the season at Haverhill Rovers.
Tom Benjamin Williams gave Rovers a 1-0 interval lead before Alfie Pinyoun, Matthew Harris-Hercules and Luke Lindsay added further goals in the second half.
Next up for Heacham is a home game against Ipswich Wanderers on Saturday.
