Barnstaple Town 0-0 Falmouth Town
An evenly contested game ended all square after 90 mins, where defences and midfields were dominant not allowing either strike force to have any reasonable goalscoring opportunities .
Falmouth were buoyed by the return of Tom Annear and Bradley Leivers to the defence with Kayden Gordon Dunn filling in for James Ward who was watching from the bench along with Jared Simms, Luke Barner, Max Everall and Alex Wharton.
Barnstaple were missing several players including influential captain Billy Tucker who had got injured in the midweek Les Phillips cup game and the regular goalkeeper serving a suspension after his sending off last week.
With last weeks stand-in keeper Stu Bowker not fancying another stint. Liskeard reserve keeper Cory Harvey was drafted in between the sticks, with Bowker taking up his usual nuisance No:9 position. Oscar Massey who town thought they had signed a month ago, but chose Barnstaple instead, played on the left wing and was superbly marshalled by right back James Swan.
On a very heavy pitch chances were few and far between for either side with build up play being nullified by the midfields with Town’s M.O.T.M. and debutant Tom Fisher alongside the ever reliable Andreas Caleja-Staine and Cam Hutchison not letting Barnstaple have a serious passage of play. Both teams were guilty of playing the long ball over the top on too many occasions with young town striker Jayden Gilbert running his socks off to no avail.
Nil Nil at half time and you couldn’t see where a goal was going to come from for either side, Town made substitutions in the last half an hour. Luke Barner for Cam Hutchison, Jared Simms for Luke Braybn and Max Everall for Kayden Gordon Dunn, who looked like he picked up a nasty rib injury. With the fresh legs and running down the slope Town pushed for a winner but just couldn’t find the killer pass.
Overall a good all round team performance after Tuesday nights disappointment against Helston. 2 points dropped or a good point gained? I’ll go for the latter.
With an attendance 211, of which 38 were F-Troopers, we had a great time, out drumming and out singing the Barum Barmy Army and great banter in the clubhouse.