A late comeback and dramatic Henry Vieira hat-trick earned Needham Market Reserves a 3-3 draw against Stowupland Falcons - a week before their league season begins.
After trailing 2-0 at the break, ex-Needham Kurt Warren scored a third on 69 minutes only for Vieira to swiftly reduce the deficit, and restoring parity with two goals in stoppage time.
Aden Chandler (4') was released through on goal by a great ball through onto the left-hand side, whose initial shot was well smothered by the onrushing stopper as the forward's rebound header was also well saved, parried away by the keeper.
Falcons meanwhile shot just wide of the bottom far, left-hand, corner (5'), before Harry Hopkins' shot from the left-hand side was blocked as Riley Parker fired over on the follow up (7').
Alex Breeden (8') smartly weaved into space to tee up Aden Chandler just outside the box, though his shot was blocked, prior to Falcons (10') curling a great strike narrowly wide of the top far, left-hand, corner.
Falcons broke the deadlock on 14 minutes, the striker intercepted Foreman's clearance to cleverly dink the ball over the keeper and into the net.
Harry Hopkins (18') saw a 20-yard shot blocked, as the young Marketmen continued to play positively.
Alex Breeden (22') raced through onto the left-hand byline whose cutback towards Dawson Coldwell was intercepted at the crucial moment by a defender, the former (23') however blazed over from distance soon after.
A good stop from Freddie Foreman (23') at his near post denied Falcons, who was then alert to tip over a dipping strike towards his top right-hand, near, corner.
A sharp turn (28') from Breeden, after being found on the left-hand side, saw the striker's low fierce strike well stopped by the feet of the diving keeper, though Falcons (29') doubled their lead - the midfielder was picked out by a great left wing corner to bullet head home into the top far, left-hand, corner.
Breeden (38') was fed in space just outside the area, albeit his powerful effort went over the bar, while Dawson Coldwell (42') forced a good save from the keeper.
The striker was fed through with one defender ahead of him, the number 9 worked space to shoot low and ferociously towards the bottom left-hand corner, but for the keeper to get across and beat his effort behind superbly.
After the break, Foreman advanced off his line well to block a long range lobbed strike outside of his area (57'), ahead of a 61st minute looped Needham strike, towards the top right-hand corner, being claimed well by the keeper.
Clinical Falcons, rather against the run of play, added a third goal in the 69th minute. Kurt Warren latched onto a great ball through on goal to superbly lob Foreman into the top far corner.
Needham (71') struck back instantly, Josh Tennial's right-hand low cross was headed home expertly at close range by the diving Henry Vieira into the bottom left-hand corner.
Zane Baker (76') met a right wing corner well, only for his header on target to be headed away, before Vieira (79') had a fiercely struck shot blocked.
Great play from Needham (83') saw Riley Parker meet a great right wing cross close to goal but the midfielder headed agonisingly just over.
Will Hart (85') saw a shot blocked from distance, the forward (87') slipped Vieira through on goal down the left-hand side but the goalscorer's close range strike was well blocked by the keeper, after narrowing down the angle well.
Good team play (89') saw Riley Coote feed Vieira, in turn finding Tennial to feed Harry Hopkins - although the skipper's strike from distance was skewed wide of the near post.
Needham (90') reduced the deficit back to 3-2 with a well worked team move. Fenton Grimmer's right wing brilliant cross picked out Henry Vieira free at the far post to head home from close range.
Needham (93') went agonisingly close to levelling, Hart slipped Breeden close to goal on the right whose shot was denied, as Hart's follow up header was held by the keeper.
Vieira (94') completed the sensational comeback, netting his hat-trick in style. The forward was threaded clear on goal down the left-hand side to fire home low into the net.
Colin Grogan's side welcome Sporting 87 for their final friendly on Tuesday (7:45pm).
Needham Res: 1 Freddie Foreman, 2 Fenton Grimmer, 3 Tyler Wright, 4 Zane Baker, 5 Riley Coote, 6 Riley Parker, 7 Harry Hopkins (c), 8 Josh Tennial (HT' Vieira), 9 Dawson Coldwell (67' Breeden), 10 Aden Chandler (67' Tennial), 11 Alex Breeden (HT' Hart). Subs: 14 Will Hart, 15 Henry Vieira.
Falcons: 7 Macauley Bell, 8 Kurt Warren, 12 Will Wharton-Richardson.
Goals: Henry Vieira (71', 90', 90'+4'); S9 (14'), S4 (29'), Kurt Warren (69').
HAT-TRICK HERO HENRY VIEIRA ON RESERVES' DRAW V FALCONS
Reflecting on the comeback, Henry Vieira said, "it was 3-0 down, wasn't it? Come on at half-time. It's always good to get a hat-trick, actually. Two of them with your head and one with your left foot, it's not bad. Don't mind it, yeah, second half. Obviously two goals in the first half was a killer. Obviously we knew we had to do a lot to get past that, but yeah, it was nice at the end to get the draw."
On his hat-trick, the forward said, "so I knew we had to get a couple of goals. We needed a goal to get in straight away, so the first one was a bit scrappy. Got a tiny deflection. Didn't actually think it was going to go in, but it hit the (inside of the) post. The second one was a good ball from Fenton down the wing. Don't normally score headers, so for it to make connection so perfectly, it was good. And then the last one was a brilliant ball from Harry. I saw the keeper come off his line. I had to put it past him with my left foot, so yeah. Not bad."
Discussing his First Team debut the night prior, "it was good to be a part of that. The game itself was a shame to lose, but from a personal perspective, I was quite happy with it. Came on the pitch. It looked like scoring maybe a couple of times, which was nice.n The environment, yeah, it was good. A bit different to what I'm used to. It's definitely a step up. It's more professional, the environment, definitely. But yeah, it's not what I'm used to, but I need to do it. So yeah, it's nice to be around."
"Pre-season's been good. I've been getting on the score sheet quite a bit, so that's always nice to see.There's been some challenging games. On Tuesday, we went away to Westfield, which was definitely a hard game. It's a good opposition, but it's coming to a close now, so get ready for the season ahead."
Looking ahead to Tuesday's final friendly against Sporting 87, Vieira added, "that should be a tough game. It'll be nice to finish pre-season on a win. I think we need to. We'll have good morale for the season, heads will be high. But yeah, hopefully we get the win for that game."
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