Falmouth Town coach Charlie Davis praised his side’s ‘brilliant energy’ in the wake of their convincing 3-1 win over Torpoint Athletic on Wednesday night.
Tim Nixon got the hosts off to a flying start at Bickland Park before Charlie Edney and Luke Barner notched their first goals of the season as Town raced into a three-goal lead at the break.
The second half saw the visitors dominate play and they pulled one back early on through Ryan Richards, but could not bridge the gap any further as Town closed out their second home win in four days.
The victory propels Town up to sixth in the Western League table, ahead of Saturday’s exciting Emirates FA Cup preliminary round trip to Helston Athletic.
“I think the game was brilliant from our perspective,” Davis said. “It was a good performance all-round. I thought our attacking play in the first half was great, there was a brilliant energy from the guys.
“In the second half we showed our defensive side of the game, we showed good determination against a physical side that know how to play football, as most teams are in this league and we carried out what we tried to achieve. It was a brilliant win, I’d have taken that all day.”
For the second game in a row, Town scored all of their goals before the interval as Nixon, Edney and Barner fired the hosts into a commanding three-goal lead at the break.
As was perhaps expected, Torpoint started the second half strongly and asked plenty of questions of the home defence, and Davis was pleased to see how his side rose to the challenge.
“I think we all stuck to a similar task and we’ve got a good group mentality here,” Davis said. “I think it’s just setting standards and you can hear that on the pitch in the way they’re communicating with each other and trying to problem solve in a defensive sense.
“Everyone takes responsibility for their own stuff but also helps each other out with it. It’s a good thing to see as a team unit and it’s certainly something we probably didn’t have to do as much last year, but we’re certainly showing signs we can manage that.”
Nixon is now Town’s leading goalscorer after opening the scoring on Wednesday night with his third of the campaign. After scoring his first free-kick for the club in Saturday’s win over Clevedon, the winger duly doubled his dead-ball tally on Wednesday with a sublime strike.
Nixon was hauled down on the edge of the Torpoint box in the 11th minute of yesterday’s game, and he dusted himself off to curl the ball over the wall and into the top corner, leaving Torpoint goalkeeper Jason Peters no chance.
“He is lording himself about as a free-kick maestro at the moment!” Davis said. “In fact, he gave us a stat that he’s been here four years and never scored a free-kick and now he’s scored two in two. We’ll see at the end of the season how many more free-kicks he scores but I hope he gets double figures!”
As excellent as Nixon’s opening effort was, the second goal from 18-year-old Edney was a thing of brilliance in its own way. The youngster, leading the line in the absence of the injured Jack Bray-Evans, met Scott Kellow’s cross with his back to goal and showed great strength to turn his defender before rifling the ball past Peters.
The goal was Edney’s first of the campaign and first ever at Western League level, and Davis was thrilled with his goal and his overall performance at the apex of the Town attack.
“I thought it was a great performance from him and everyone seems to forget that Charlie is 18,” Davis said. “To play as a lone striker in the system we play, we ask a lot of you defensively and that’s not something that naturally happens as a striker and I think he takes on board feedback really well.
“I find his character quite funny because he’s very quiet, but he’ll give you a thumbs-up and do anything for you. I was absolutely delighted for him to score that, I thought it was a brilliant goal. [He showed a] great striker’s touch, pinned his defender, spun him and smashed it home in front of the Packet End as well so I’m absolutely chuffed for him to get his first goal in the league.”
Davis also issued an update after Town were forced into making two subs before the break, with Alex Wharton coming off after 20 minutes after sustaining a head injury in a clash with Torpoint defender Elliot Crawford, who escaped punishment for the challenge.
James Swan was also replaced before half-time, with the midfielder coming off for Barner shortly before the interval after pulling up in the middle of the park.
“Alex looked a bit dazed to be honest,” Davis said. “He was fine to talk to and wanted to stay on, but just watching his mannerisms I decided to change it, but he’s seeming a lot better now and was a little bit groggy for a while.
“James just felt that he stretched for something and was a little bit tight and did the right thing and signalled over [to be substituted], but that’s the beauty of having a big squad like we have, we were able to make four subs again tonight.”