Hadleigh 11 Ipswich 7

Hadleigh scraped past a fumbling Ipswich in the first round of the Suffolk Cup with success at goal proving the difference in a tight match at Layham Sports Ground.

Ipswich replied to Luke Gibson’s late first-half try with a converted try to coach Jeff Searle but despite playing a side reduced to 14 men the visitors could not take the result from Hadleigh.

Handling errors and missed penalty attempts proved decisive for Ipswich and the amber-and-blacks will now have to concentrate on the league while Hadleigh will relish the opportunity to get their hands on some silverware after a stumbling start to their London Division Two North campaign.

Hadleigh started the match dominating Ipswich in the scrums and after Christian Hadwen had a penalty attempt bounce off the posts Hadleigh’s Craig Burrows put them ahead 3-0 after Ipswich failed to release the ball in the tackle.

Towards the end of the half Ipswich were penalised again for being offside and Burrows added three more points.

Hadleigh tested Ipswich towards the end of the first half with penetrating attacks which finally bore fruit when they worked the ball over in the left hand corner, when Gibson finished off the team’s hard work.

The sturdy but injured Jason Clench was replaced at halftime by John Clarke and captain Fraser Pratt was replaced by Jonathan Akin-George.

The visitors had the better of the possession and Hadleigh were forced to concede a penalty at the ruck but Hadwen was unable to convert the pressure into points as he missed another attempt.

Jeff Searle came on for Nick Rush at number eight and alongside Gert Rossouw and Cristoffel Blom upped the tempo, with Searle crossing the line after centre Drew Locke darted down the centre of the pitch, fed Blom who powered through the home side to ship to Searle who coasted under the posts.

Hadwen’s conversion brought Ipswich within a score of winning but even when Hadleigh had a forward sent to the bin for cynically killing the ball at the breakdown.

With five minutes to go another penalty attempt was missed and winger Simon Hughes was badly cut and concussed in a collision with a Hadleigh player with only minutes to go. Hughes lay unconscious for two minutes before regaining consciousness and being taken to hospital, where he discharged himself from after getting seven stitches to his mouth.

Ipswich player-coach was disappointed with his side’s inability to take more from the game. “We should have converted the second-half pressure into points,” he said. “We now have to learn from this and sharpen up for the Rochford match this weekend.”

Ipswich travel to Rochford in London Division Three North East this Saturday, hoping to make an assault on the league table where they currently lie fourth.

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