Wanderers 2-2 Acle United

Reigning champions Acle Utd visited Mulberry park in what promised to be a lively affair and neither side disappointed in playing their part. In what started a Cagey affair, the opening 15 minutes saw both sides feel there way into the season.

Mulbarton began to take a grip of the game with a flurry of corners and free kicks where they looked dangerous. In the period chances fell to Durrant, Smith and Hennery who all had shots blocked from inside Acle's penalty area.

Wanderers maintained this dominance and looked threatening all over the pitch. On 30 minutes, Dale Simpson chased a through ball causing Acle keeper Foreman to rush from his goal to sweep behind his defence and clear, however his clearance fell to Rossy Durrant on his left foot, Durrant beat his man by chopping back onto his right foot and driving a pinpoint shot from at least 35yards at the goal, going in off the bar and post in the top corner before settling into the Acle net. A great start to what was an accomplished performance from Durrant.

This sparked the reigning champs into a bit of life and they responded with a run of set pieces they put into the Mulbarton penalty area that asked for some resolute and last ditch defending from MWFC. However this didn't last to the break as a freekick from Acle captain Daniel Foreman arrived into the area and caused a mix up in the defence resulting in Acle centre back Faulkes prodding home from close range.

Both sides saw out the half to go in at 1-1.

Wanderers began the 2nd half the way way they performed in the first half with a high tempo and attacking from the off. Smith and Simpson were a constant threat that were regularly supplied by Durrant and McCloy on either wing. This paid off again for MWFC when the ever lively Simpson drove through the Acle midfield with the ball avoiding challenges. Before the 3rd challenge he released the ball to Bland before getting caught with the referee playing a good advantage. Bland picked out Jamie Smith who proceeded to take the ball down, jink past a challenge and fire into the corner to give Mulbarton the lead. Simpson unfortunately didn't recover from the challenge and had to be replaced on 60mins by Mark Appleton.

MWFC continued to look dangerous and attack the champions creating chances for Appleton, Smith with the team's tireless pressing and penetrative football.

Wanderers introduced John Curtis to replace the classy Farrow on 65mins and then later Dom Doggett replaced the impressive Jimmy McCloy (72mins) to freshen up the midfield areas. Both were immediately in the thick of the action; Doggett showing some good skill on a couple of occasions out wide to then delivery into the Acle area. Curtis had an impact in midfield by making tackles and raising the tempo but was booked on 80mins for a mis-timed challenge.

Acle also made changes to personnel and this resulted in the game becoming more open and end to end with MWFC looking the more likely to extend their lead as their defence marshalled Acle's attackers well. However Acle did what all good champions do and kept themselves in the game and began to take every opportunity to put the ball MWFC area from all angles in the hope they could salvage a point. They did this in the 7th minute of added on time when a long free kick from Scott Foreman was headed home by Callum Webb to bring the sides level. An entertaining game ended minutes later with both sides getting a share of the spoils.

Rossy Durrant was the supporters Man of The Match.