East Harling beat Wymondham Town 2-1 in Stacey Lawrence’s first match as manager since returning to club

In many ways the hard work starts now, but Stacey Lawrence’s second tenure in charge of East Harling got off to a positive start last weekend.

The club’s issues in recent seasons have been well documented, with back-to-back relegations down to Division Two of the Anglian Combination League and a host of fixtures being called off due to a lack of player availability.

Having taken East Harling on an impressive rise during his first spell in charge, Lawrence’s surprise return to the dugout was confirmed late last month.

And his first match back in charge on Saturday saw the club record its first victory in almost a calendar year as Wymondham Town were beaten 2-1.

A number of familiar faces – both on and off the pitch – returned to the Memorial Field for the encounter, and it proved to be a day to remember.

Lawrence said: “The two weeks leading up to the game have been manic. There was no kit, about two footballs and the showers were a mess.

“Behind the scenes so much work went into making sure the game could go ahead and a lot of people worked tirelessly.

“We had all of the wind and the rain on the day as well, but the crowd must have been in excess of 100 and everyone was in good spirits.

“We got the first win in a year, so that’s that box ticked, and in the bar after the game you’d have thought we’d won a cup final. It was a great atmosphere and it was great to see everyone together.

“Some of the lads that played hadn’t kicked a football in a couple of years, but their quality and experience shone through.”

The challenge for Lawrence and his squad is to now build on that early momentum – starting tomorrow at home against Yelverton Reserves in the second round of the Cyril Ballyn Cup (1.30pm).

Lawrence added: “In many ways, this week is when we become a normal football club again.

“There was a big build up to the weekend and thankfully we got the win, but now we’ve got to build and keeping building.

“It’s a very different football club to the one I left. We were top of the pile locally back then in the Anglian Combination and that’s where we’d love to be again, but obviously that’s going to take time.

“Hopefully we’ll get another good result this weekend and we’ll kick on from there.”