FALMOUTH TOWN 1-0 AFC ST AUSTELL (CSC FINAL)
Falmouth Town made Cornwall Senior Cup history again in this final at Newquay’s Mount Wise ground against Western League AFC St Austell, clocking up their fifteenth win in the competition, their second successive win against their opposition and their 4th win in the last 7 seasons (2 of which were curtailed by Covid)
What a season it has been for Falmouth, coming 9th in the Southern League Division 1 West which is their highest position ever in the non-league pyramid, and capping the season off with this fine cup win, in the premium knock-out competition in the county.
Falmouth named a strong starting line-up in front of the sun-drenched crowd of 1177, with Ollie Walker travelling down to play wide on the left and 16 year-old prospect Olly Evans being selected to play wide on the right in his home town of Newquay.
St Austell started with former Falmouth favourites Adam Carter, Tom Whipp, Neil Slateford and Martin Duff, but elected to leave influential centre-midfielder Henry Wilson on the bench.
Falmouth had a very strong first 10 minutes and it was at the end of this spell that they struck the first, and ultimately the winning, blow. A sweeping cross-field move resulted in Ollie Walker being fed the ball down the left-hand side. Taking on Jake Shaw, the St Austell right-back, who had a real challenge containing Walker throughout the game, Walker crafted a deep curling cross which was met at the far post by Rubin Wilson for a text-book header past Collings in the St Austell goal.
There then followed a period of dominance by St Austell as they got their passing going in midfield and they forced a succession of corners. However, in a pattern replicated throughout the game, they could not make any of these set-pieces count and the Falmouth defence easily dealt with anything St Austell could throw at them.
St Austell’s best chance came on 23 minutes when Morgan Coxhead in the Falmouth goal made a great save down to his right rom Kieron Bishop, who looked the most dangerous and effective of St Austell attacking line-up with his pace and trickery.
The remainder of the half played out with Falmouth looking the most likely to get another goal. On 27 minutes, Jack Webber latched on to a through ball threaded in between St Austell centre-backs Tom Whipp and Ollie Brokenshire. With only Collings to beat, and ten yards out, Webber was unable to keep his shot down and it cleared the crossbar.
The second-half followed a similar pattern to the latter part of the first half as the general play was fairly even, but Falmouth looked the more capable of adding to their lead when getting forward, with Olly Evans forcing a save from Collings early on. St Austell huffed and puffed but just could not break down the excellent Falmouth defence of Walter, Annear, Jewell and Leivers.
St Austell introduced Henry Wilson and Ryan Downing after about 25 minutes but neither could really affect the game and Falmouth remained comfortable. However, there was always the jeopardy of an equalising goal and Falmouth, and their hordes of black and amber supporters surrounding the pitch could not relax. The game lost some momentum as the minutes ticked by with several players from both sides going down injured, and as a result, 7 minutes of injury time was added.
Ultimately, it was an uninspiring half of football but Falmouth did what was required of them and managed the added minutes well to emerge deservedly victorious to maintain manager Andy Westgarth’s 100% Senior Cup Final success rate.
The players went to the clubhouse end of the ground to salute their supporters who had congregated there, and soon after, it was captain Tom Annear who made the short walk to receive the trophy, amidst scenes as the F-Troop looked on.
A great end to a great season!
Goals:
Falmouth Town
Rubin Wilson 11′
AFC St Austell
Att: 1177
Line Ups:
St Austell: Andy Collings, Jake Shaw, Martin Duff, Olly Brokenshire, Tom Whipp, Callum Watson, Neil Slateford, Kieron Bishop, Adam Carter, George Marris. Subs: Henry Wilson, Jack Hooper, Josh Penrose, Ryan Downing, Penrose.