Dereham Town 1 - 0 City

The poor start to the season for Cambridge City continued as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at Dereham.

The Lilywhites went into the game on the back of a 1-0 reverse at home to Sutton Coldfield on Saturday. Influential defender Taylor Parr was missing for that game and for the game at Corby in midweek but was back in the starting line-up today. Ben Nolan had also recovered from injury and was fit enough to start with Ben Siggers making way for Alfie Wren at left back. The Dereham team included Ryan Swift who moved from City to Aldiss Park in the summer.

After a cagey opening quarter to the match, it was Swift who created the first real opening of note for the hosts as he picked out Joe Gascoigne, but his effort was well saved by Louis Chadwick in the City goal.

City then had a sight of goal as home keeper Ross Bilham could only parry a shot. The ball fell into the path of Mikey Davis, but he could only find the side netting.

The deadlock was broken no more than a minute into the second half as Dereham took the lead. Henry Clark won the ball and played in Luke Johnson. The flag stayed down, and Johnson rounded Chadwick and made no mistake to slot the ball home.

On the hour mark, Swift was in the action again with another of his trademark runs that City fans were accustomed to last season. This time he got to the byline and pulled the ball back to Valter Rocha, but his effort was blocked and scrambled away by the City defence.

By now Mikey Davis had been replaced by Ben Siggers but it was Dereham who were looking the more threatening and the Magpies carved out a decent opening when Rocha supplied a cross for substitute Mo Hassan, but he couldn’t make the most of his effort.

City boss Robbie Nightingale introduced substitute Dylan Asonganyi for the expense of Alfie Wren as the match entered the last few minutes, but it was too late to prevent City falling to another defeat.

The Lilywhites have a weekend off on Saturday and will be looking to kick-start their season when they travel to fellow strugglers Hinckley LRFC next Tuesday, 6 September.