NEXT HOME FIXTURE

Stowmarket Town are the visitors to Stoneylands tonight in the Turners Hyundai Suffolk Premier Cup second round.

Kick off is 7.45pm at Stoneylands, New Road, Long Melford (CO10 9JY).

Admission prices including a programme are £7 or £4 concessions.

Concessions include Senior Citizens (over 65) and schoolchildren.

Deb's Diner will be open and we’ll have Nethergate Craft Lager and Suffolk County Ale on draft in our Stoneylands Bar.  

WEATHER FORECAST: Dry and mild, 12° with a gentle breeze (12mph).

MATCH PREVIEW: Long Melford have enjoyed a lot of success over the years in the Suffolk Senior Cup but since stepping up to Step 5, the Premier Cup has proved to be more difficult. The standard of opposition is obviously higher, in recent years we’ve lost to a very good Felixstowe side twice and a young Ipswich Town side whose best player was Monty Patterson – his next game was a World Cup qualifier in Peru! Ipswich also included Jack Lancaster in their team who has done very well since. This season we have another tough draw, against Thurlow Nunn Premier leaders Stowmarket Town. They have a squad that would be comfortable at Step 3 in the non-league pyramid, so it’s no surprise to see them doing so well at this level and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before they climb up through the leagues. We all know what a good team Stowmarket are, but from the Melford perspective there is nothing to lose tonight and sometimes it’s easier to play with that underdog status. Confidence is certainly high after four home wins in a row. It will take a Herculean effort to get through to the next round, but with a similar performance to last week’s league win against high-flying Wroxham, we’ll have a decent chance of getting a result. We always believe this group of players can beat even the best sides at this level, as they’ve done it many times before.