Newmarket Town 1-4 Walthamstow
Stow ensured back-to-back wins for the first time this season thanks to a clinical display against newly-promoted Newmarket Town.
There was a debut at left-back for Chevron McLean, in an otherwise unchanged starting line-up for Vinny Murphy’s side who had beaten Ipswich Wanderers 4-3 in the week.
Stow’s 94th minute winner against Wanderers was followed by a goal after just 32 seconds to get them going in Cambridgeshire. Winning the ball back from the opposition kick off, Stow drove forward, with the ball eventually falling to Brian Moses. Moses’ pass out wide was blocked, but only into the path of Callum Ibe who turned and unleashed a dipping shot from the edge of the box, leaving James Young with no chance.
Young had barely recovered when he was beaten again. Newmarket failed to clear their lines, and Brian Moses out-jumped Tom Williams to nod over the stranded home keeper.
2-0 after six minutes, and many in the ground already considered the game over as a contest, but it could have been so different had Ally Conway not dragged a penalty wide with 14 minutes played after Jordan Foster was cut down by Ali Njie when through on goal.
Newmarket dominated possession, but created little in the way of real chances; being forced to try from distance time and time again.
Stow were content to hit them on the break, and had further chances when Ibe’s cut-back was narrowly past Moses, and when Ibe fed Ezra Agyiri who screwed his shot wide when well placed.
The break did nothing to change the pattern of play, with the opening 20 minutes of the second half seeing Newmarket pepper the grass mound behind Lewis Greene’s goal with increasingly desperate long-range efforts.
Things were over as a contest when Moses notched his second with a pearl of a curling effort from the edge of the box. The shot was made possible thanks to the industry and then the quality of Bilal Sayoud who pounced on a poor Newmarket touch before beating his man with a delicate piece of skill and then cutting back to Moses who curled his shot across Young and into the side-netting.
Stow continued to keep Newmarket at bay, so it came as something of a surprise when one long-distance effort finally found the back of the net; Josh Lee firing in low and hard from the edge of the box.
It could have set up a grandstand finish, but Moses made sure the travelling Stow fans went home happy and without the need for concern when he climbed above two home defenders and nodded home for his third of the game from a Sayoud corner.
Stow now travel to Witham Town on Saturday.
