It was the central defender's first competitive goal for his team and it could not have come at a better time.

In truth the home side should have been dead and buried by then, having fallen behind in the second minute and survived several scares, but to their credit they battled on to have a second bite at the cherry.

Lowestoft Town, who were always formidable opposition to AFC in their Ridgeons League days, came into the game having started the season unbeaten, including a 5-0 win at Needham Market in their previous match. A difficult game was expected and so it proved.

AFC were forced into one change. Neil Cogger was unavailable so the home management gave a debut to their latest signing, former Long Melford player Andy Jones from Needham.

He took a wide left role while Steve Joyce retained his place in an unchanged defence after Curtis Haynes-Brown failed a fitness test.

One of the warmest days of the year greeted the teams at kick-off and there was an almost carnival atmosphere with a 300-plus crowd in the ground with many AFC fans in fancy dress.

But it was the Lowestoft fans who were celebrating with the opening goal after just two minutes. The goal came after AFC gave the ball away in midfield resulting in a swift pass finding Darren Cockerill who got between two defenders to beat keeper Liam Jones with a crisp strike.

Buoyed on by their early goal, the visitors went on to dominate the first half, with the dangerous Jamie Godbold the architect of most of their more telling moves. But for a couple of fine stops by Liam Jones, Lowestoft would have gone in at the break with an unassailable lead.

It had been a disappointing first 45 minutes for the home side. They frequently gave the ball away and hardly strung any passing moves together. Up front James Rowe, who had scored in the previous four games, was starved of decent service and seldom got a look-in.

Dead-ball situations seemed to be AFC's best chance of getting back into the game, and Gareth Heath came close with a fiercely-struck free kick from just outside the box which was deflected wide by a defender.

AFC were much better in the second half in terms of possession, but seldom looked like piercing a Lowestoft defence which looked happy to protect their slender lead.

Their keeper, Andy Reynolds, had a quiet afternoon but he was beaten after 64 minutes when a curling shot from Jamie Ricks look destined for the top corner of the net. Carl Poppy was well positioned to head off the line.

Three minutes later, AFC made their only substitution with Danny Brown coming off the bench to make his competitive debut at the expense of Andy Jones.