Report: Needham Market 2-1 Warrington Town

Two penalties, including one in injury time at the end of the match, sent Warrington Town to a 2-1 defeat against bottom side Needham Market.

After falling behind to a spot kick from Luke Ingram at the end of the first half, the Yellows did most of the running in the second half and dragged themselves back in to the match with Elliot Morris’ first goal for the club.

They had plenty of chances, with goalkeeper Josh Blunkell pulling off several saves, notably to deny a Josh Amis header, while Dan Atherton was untroubled at the other end.

But the referee pointed to the spot when Tevan Allen’s shot struck Ollie Southern in injury time, and Seth Chambers stepped up to decide the match.

On their longest away trip of the season, the Yellows had stayed down south the night before in preparation, and the early exchanges were typical of one between two struggling teams.

The soft and cut-up pitch wasn’t encouraging of passing football, and both sides struggled to gain control of possession.

It was 32 minutes until a real clear cut chance, Morris hitting the crossbar with a first time shot after Amis had passed inside to him from the right.

The hosts were gifted the opportunity to open the scoring four minutes from half-time when Peter Clarke felled Jamie Dye in the box at the byline, Luke Ingram stepping up to convert from 12 yards.

That gave the Yellows it all to do, but within nine minutes of the restart they had restored parity when Amis helped on Atherton’s ball forward for Morris to go through on the goalkeeper and sweep home.

Clarke came close to a second moments later with a rising left-foot shot, and then Lee Williams was denied by Blunkell one-on-one from another Amis flick-on.

Amis must have thought he had scored on 63 when his header from Jack Hont looked destined for the top corner, only for Blunkell to get across and tip wide.

The Yellows were dealt a blow when Clarke pulled up injured in the middle of play, and that enabled Ingram to ghost past him and shoot wide for the home side.

But the chances kept coming at the other end, Morris’ inswinging corner tipped on to the crossbar by Blunkell, who then got down to parry wide a Jay Harris shot from 20 yards.

From the resulting corner, Harris hit a rising half-volley a whisker over the crossbar.

Although both sides could sense the opportunity to win, the final 10 minutes became a bit more cagey and the Yellows chances in front of goal lessened.

It looked to be petering out to a draw until stoppage time, when Allen’s shot was blocked illegally by Southern to stun the Yellows and send them in to the relegation zone for the first time this season.

Needham Market: Blunkell, Dye, Smith, Hammond, Morphew, Ingram (Lay), Allen (Mills), McGrath (Lambe), Hunter, Tomlinson (Chambers), Allen. Unused sub: Cross.

Warrington Town: Atherton, Southern, Clarke (Bennett), Douglas, Hont, Dixon (Amaral), Harris, Morris, McDonald, Williams (Rodwell-Grant), Amis. Unused subs: O’Neill, Noone.