Felixstowe & Walton United 3 Lowestoft Town 5 (AET)

Thanks to Ali Stafford (BBC Suffolk) for the following report.

Att 140

Lowestoft Town Team: Jones, Marsden, Gaughran, Haynes-Brown (Edwards-King 87 mins), Parsons, Ainsley, Jarvis (Doddington 96 mins), Radomski, Zielonka, Louis, Reed (Woods-Garness 82 mins)
Subs not used; Main

Lowestoft Town (Man of the Match):- Jack Ainsley

Lowestoft Town battled back from two goals down to avoid an upset against an impressive Felixstowe side and book their place in the Suffolk Premier Cup semi-finals.

Missing several first-team players due to injuries and unavailability, Lowestoft handed reserve team player Lee Parsons a start, with Reece Edwards-King also getting involved from the bench.

The visitors came close early on when Marsden saw an effort cleared off the line by Barber, after Radomski’s free-kick could only be palmed away by Stannard.

The home side opened the scoring on 15 minutes, when a corner was flicked on at the near post and cleared off the line, before Rhys Barber scrambled home the follow up.

Lowestoft had a glorious chance to level moments later, but Haynes-Brown shot wide when well place.

Felixstowe doubled their advantage in the 21st minute, when Thrower turned on to his weaker right foot and curled the ball in to the far corner from the edge of the area.

Barber almost added a third for the hosts soon after, but his header rattled the woodwork.

Lowestoft slowly improved as the half progressed and reduced the deficit on 31 minutes, when Ainsley’s powerful low shot from outside the area found the bottom corner.

The Seasiders restored their two-goal cushion within 21 seconds of the restart, as with the Trawlerboys defence expecting a flag to go up for offside, Dew was able to break through unchallenged and slot the ball past Jones.

The away side grabbed their second shortly before the hour mark when Ainsley’s cross was met by a pin-point header from Zielonka, who found the far corner to score his first goal for the club.

Dew nearly picked up his second of the evening following a neat move from the hosts, but narrowly evaded guiding home Cranfield’s cross to the far post.

It was from a set piece that Lowestoft found the equaliser on 73 minutes, as Marsden’s free-kick was headed home from closer range by Gaughran.

As the hosts began to tire it was the Trawlerboys who were producing the clearer chances, with Louis seeing a header go wide and Ainsley guiding a delicate lob narrowly over the bar.

Lowestoft had a couple of penalty appeals turned down in the first period of extra time, before taking the lead through an acrobatic overhead kick from Woods-Garness.

Jefferson Louis completed the scoring from the penalty spot in the 113th minute, slotting past Stannard after Marsden had been clattered into by Ross.

The Trawlerboys can now focus their attention back on the Conference North, ahead of Saturday’s clash at Crown Meadow against a North Ferriby United side unbeaten in their last six league games.

Ali Stafford (BBC Suffolk)