The 2s scored six goals for the second game in a row and third time in five games to add another three points to the board, moving them to 2nd in the table. There was only one change to the team where Joel Potter started on the left side of midfield in an otherwise unchanged squad from last week. UEA started the stronger and quickly settled into their rhythm with the ball being spread around the park comfortably giving Rafuse, Potter, Allison and Graham a lot of the ball out wide. Similarly to the previous week's victory over Drayton, it took a while for the U's to make their dominance in possession and numerous visits to the opposition's third count. A few chances that should have been converted were not yet it was only a matter of time before UEA would take the lead. A slick attacking move led to the ball falling to the unmarked Dan Williams just inside the area who opened the scoring with some help of a deflection off of the Old Catton defender. UEA should have been ahead by more than one at the break where, barring a sloppy 10-minute display of passing, the game was largely under control and Kibbey remained untested for the whole half.
UEA were finding most of their look out wide with the full-backs and wingers being given a a lot of freedom and giving the opposition defence a torrid time. With the middle becoming congested, the U's moved into a 4-4-2 formation as opposed to their regular 4-2-3-1 with Bell playing as a second striker. Old Catton started the second half at 100mph and demonstrated quick passing and moving that was not present in their game in the first half. However, there were not any evident alarms for UEA quite yet where Kibbey still did not have a save to make. Some quick passing and moving of their own led to UEA going two ahead with Bell threading the ball through to Potter to cooly slot home to get his first goal for the club. The introduction of Willerton gave the U's an added impetous to their attack, where his movement around Read and his combinations with Graham making it likely a goal was not far from coming. It was no surprise to see Willerton score to make it three for the U's after he was played in by Read. Shortly after, the two swapped roles for Read to continue his fine run of goalscoring form, despite a number of chances he had in the game to make it more than just one. Katase and Toddington were introduced out wide in midfield with Potter dropping back to left back and Dryden was introduced at centre back for Moore a few minutes later. UEA played some more attractive football yet they were guilty at times of letting the ball bounce and not marking tightly enough. This led to Old Catton scoring two quick goals which the U's will be disappointed to concede with their first clean sheet still sought after. UEA snapped back into gear and were beginning to show their strength in the final third once more and should have been awarded two clear penalties, the second of which seeing Toddington wiped out by a sliding defender with the referee supposedly playing an advantage despite UEA not having the ball. Willerton added a second goal to his tally soon after with Katase squaring for him to slot the ball home. The game was coming to an end with UEA looing comfortable and still looking hungry for a sixth goal and it finally came with a few minutes to go. Willerton was fouled in the box and dusted himself down to score a penalty that will be difficult to better this season where he took two steps before placing the ball in the top right corner.
UEA once more displayed the free-flowing, attractive passing game that they are capable of and it is a testament to how well they have played in patches in the past two games that they can be disappointed at scoring just six goals in both games. Whilst they can be disappointed with switching off at times and not playing at 100% for the 90 minutes, there is clearly many good signs about this UEA 2s team and adding consistency to these performances will see them challenging come the end of the season.
