Falmouth Town boss Andrew Westgarth was pleased with his team’s performance in spite of their 2-0 defeat at Shepton Mallet on Saturday.
Two goals inside the first 30 minutes from Danny Constable did the damage as Town slipped to a first defeat in five matches, and first away from home in four outings.
Constable opened the scoring after 20 minutes when he got on the end of Fin Haines’ pass and drilled a low shot past the returning Ryan Barnes, who had missed the previous three games due to suspension.
The hosts doubled their advantage ten minutes later when Barnes brought down Josh Jenkins inside the box as he attempted to round the Town custodian, with Constable slamming home the resulting spot-kick.
Town enjoyed good spells of possession throughout and threatened on several occasions – with Tim Nixon, Luke Brabyn, Scott Kellow and debutant Louis Jagger Cane among those to come close – but ultimately couldn’t find a way past the Somerset outfit.
“I thought we started the game quite well and we were unlucky not to score in the first minute when we hit the post,” Westgarth said. “It’s definitely a big, old slope [at Shepton Mallet] so we did well going up it for the first 30 minutes, but goals change games and it was disappointing to concede from what was their first meaningful attack.
“The penalty knocked us back a bit but I still thought we had some good periods in the game, but we probably just lacked that killer touch in front of goal, as much as we had chances we didn’t really make the goalkeeper work too often. But we’ve played a lot worse, so there’s definitely a lot more positives than negatives.”
Louis Jagger Cane was drafted into the Town side for Saturday’s game and the striker, who has 12 goals in 23 games for South West Peninsula League Premier East side Sidmouth Town this season, led the line for the visitors for the full 90 minutes in Somerset.
He almost marked his appearance with a goal inside the first couple of minutes when he struck the post with a header from Luke Barner’s cross, but Westgarth was pleased with the forward’s overall impact.
“He did well, he looked lively and on another day he could have scored,” Westgarth said. “He had a couple of chances in and around the box in the first half and I think he can be pleased with his afternoon’s work.”