Derby delight for Ghosts

Fakenham returned to the top of the Premier Division table as they edged past Downham Town in Wednesday night’s Thurlow Nunn League derby clash.A long-range effort from Louis Henman-Mason in the first half settled a tight affair at the Memorial Field as the Ghosts ended a three-match winless run in the league.Fakenham boss Alex Walpole said: It was a great win, but more pleasing was the overall performance.”We were very disciplined off the ball, which meant we were forcing Downham into mistakes.”On another day, we would have scored a couple more, but thankfully the one was enough tonight.”Walpole praised the display of teenage goalkeeper Ben Andrews, who deputised between the posts with regular custodian Luke Pearson ruled out with a broken nose.”Ben did brilliantly,” he said. “The lad’s 18/19 years old and nothing fazes him. He’s so horizontal, but that’s his character. He made a couple of really big saves at important times.” Defender Josh Youngs also played his 350th game for the club with the Ghosts boss saying: Josh is a club legend, no doubt about it. He’s been at the club since he was 16 and has developed into a leader on and off the pitch.”You can certainly notice when he doesn’t play and I thought he had a really good game tonight.”Downham boss Dale Stokes felt his side’s slow start cost them dearly on the night. “I was disappointed with the way we started the game,” said Stokes.”It’s been a topic of discussion recently as we’ve been slow out of the blocks on several occasions. “I felt in general that opening 45 we gave them far too much time which they used effectively with a lot of balls into the channels for the nine to chase. He caused problems all night doing that and was a real handful.”We had spells, but we were just too slow in possession and missed moments to make something happen by taking the wrong option. “In the second half, we had them pushed back in their half for the majority of it and we were certainly the better side.”But once again it was the same old story where we wasted two or three great chances to get back into the game and even turn it around in our favour.”I think on the balance of the game we deserved a point and to be fair they said the same thing. I can’t keep saying it, we are beating ourselves far too often at the moment.”Well done to Fakenham though on the win. It was big for them in terms of where it has moved them to and you can see why they are where they are.”They worked really hard as a group and despite all our pressure second half they remained organised they always have that threat on the break with Jake (Watts) up top.”