Framlingham Town manager Liam Abraham proud after performance against Step 3 Needham Market in the Suffolk Champions Charity Cup

Framlingham Town manager Liam Abraham was left brimming with pride after seeing his Step 6 outfit get to within minutes of forcing a penalty shootout against Step 3 hosts Needham Market in the Suffolk Champions Charity Cup.

Tuesday’s match between the county’s reigning Premier Cup and Senior Cup holders at Bloomfields eventually saw Kevin Horlock’s side force an 88th minute breakthrough against the plucky Castlemen.

Jake Dye’s diving far post header was then added to by substitute Seth Chambers’ 90th minute penalty after a wild Joe Berry challenge on the teenager to put the outcome of the trophy beyond any doubt.

But Abraham, whose side missed out on promotion to Step 5 via a play-off semi-final shootout defeat to Harwich &Parkeston last term, certainly believes their latest pre-season match gives plenty of hope for the upcoming campaign.

“I couldn’t be prouder of that performance, that just shows the levels we’ve come to over the last year and a half,” he said of his Thurlow Nunn League First Division North side’s display.

“It took us a long time to win the cup final and this was the other way round, but I’m really, really proud of that.”

He added: “In that five minutes at the end you could see we were really tired as we had absolutely worked our socks off.

“It was really, really good to go toe-to-toe with them for 85 minutes.”

Abraham’s side also had chances to take the lead themselves at the three-times consecutive Premier Cup holders. First-half shots from George Exworth and Niki Shopov failed to test Marcus Garnham after some eye-catching build-up play while substitute Shane Hambling sent an angled effort wide of the far post in the 82nd minute with home hearts in mouths.

“Our game-plan was to sit in and make sure we were really structured without the ball but there’s always opportunities to nick it and steal the odd chance and we did that,” said Abraham.

“We had two or three opportunities that didn’t quite fall for us but on another day we could have found ourselves with a goal or two.”

He added: “Obviously the levels in fitness of chasing the ball around is something longer-term that will benefit us, but you don’t come up against teams like this every week so it really shows what we can do in a one-off event.”

The Needham fixture was Fram’s fourth game of pre-season with the fifth set to take them to lower-league Junior Cup holders AFC Kesgrave tomorrow (1.30pm).

Central midfielder Johnny Kerridge, who has been with Wickham Market, is one of two new confirmed signings along with full-back Alfie Norman, who was relegated with Debenham LC last term.

“Johnny is exactly what we needed,” said Abraham.

“He’s big, strong and physical but can also play as well and brings a different dynamic to the team that we didn’t have last year, so I’m really, really happy to have got that one done.

“We liked Alfie when we played against him a couple of times last year. He’s another new signing that did well tonight.”

Abraham is due to discuss the futures of what he described as ‘guesting’ debutants Shane Murphy, who came off the bench to play right wing, and Archie Exworth, who started in the number 10 role in an attack alongside his brother.

“Archie was at Needham in their under-23s last year and Shane has been at Trimley and Felixstowe previously,” he said.

Meanwhile, he confirmed Simon Poacher, who had been club captain, has left the club to play nearer his family while Charlie Howlett (Holland FC) and Jake Conway have also departed.