Exmouth Town warmed-up for Wednesday night’s mouth-watering Devon St Lukes Bowl semi-final meeting with Plymouth Argyle Reserves, beating hosts Falmouth 2-1, writes John Dibsdall.
As we approach the business end of the season it is readily apparent that it is not necessarily the performance that counts but the result, and, with that in mind, any win, even an ‘ugly win’ – which is what this was in South East Cornwall – is a precious win!
What’s more, the three points banked in the win at Falmouth returned Town to the top of the South West Peninsula League Premier Division, and the Town title hopes received a further boost as news filtered through of a 2-2 draw for rivals Tavistock – who had been 2-0 up at Helston before being pegged back! Tavistock are now four points shy of Town, though they do have two games in hand, one of which is against Plymouth Argyle Reserves on Friday, March 8!
Falmouth’s game plan was similar to Callington’s [the Town opposition the week before], in as much as they worked extremely hard, breaking up the play whenever they could and making it difficult for Town to find any cohesion or pattern in their play.
Both sets of defences were well on top to the extent that neither side had a worthwhile effort on goal in the opening 45 minutes.
Town were then awarded a penalty when Karl Rickard was tripped but he scuffed the resulting spot kick wide of the post.
The second half continued in a similar vein and it was completely out of context in the game when Town went ahead on 57 minutes.
Callum Shipton had seen a snap shot narrowly miss the post and, as Aarron Denny began to have a positive influence, Town were able to sustain some pressure and Jordan Harris picked up a loose ball to let fly from 25-yards and the ball nestled nicely in the bottom corner.
The goal settled Town who were now in the ascendency and they doubled their lead on 68 minutes when Town forced another corner. The cross was headed towards goal by Ace High for Dave Rowe to direct it pass a stranded ‘keeper.
Falmouth were handed a lifeline when they were awarded a penalty for hand ball on 78 minutes and scored with their first shot on target!
Rowe thought he had scored again, heading home from another corner, but the ‘goal’ was disallowed and Town had to survive an anxious last five minutes when the home side had only their second attempt on goal shooting straight at Robbie Powell.
Whilst this was in no way a classic Town showed that again they can mix it when required, give another solid defensive performance with Rowe earning the Man of the Match plaudit and importantly can also ‘win ugly’.
So now attention turns to the big midweek cup tie. Kick-off at Southern Road on Wednesday night is 7.30pm and, for the winners, there’s a semi-final meeting with Exeter City.
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