Falmouth Town 1 Bideford Town 0.
Luke Barner 28’
Att: 310.

Falmouth Town started their new era under former assistant manager John Fabby with a narrow victory over their fellow Southern League Division One South rivals Bideford Town in this FA Cup extra-preliminary round tie, with a well taken goal on 28 minutes from the prolific Luke Barner, writes Scott McCormack.

With newly-signed centre-forward Liam Prynn side-lined with an ankle injury, and Luke Brabyn unavailable, Fabby started young full-back Ned Symons up-front. Symons having looked very impressive in all the pre-season friendlies. Symons didn’t let his new manager down with a tireless high-energy performance which ultimately proved the difference between the two sides. There were league debuts for new full-backs Malachi Davy, who has joined from Plymouth Argyle and Max Cook who played last season for Mousehole. Local boy Jack Symons, cousin of Ned, also debuted having joined from Mousehole in the close season. The other major change was the always impressive Bradley Leivers moving inside to centre-back alongside Harrison Jewell.

In an even first half, the first chance of note was not until 15 minutes in. Oscar Massey, who showed his pace and strength throughout the game in his position wide on the left, beat his full-back and cut in before hitting a powerful shot which Luke Gwillam in the Bideford goal did well to parry to safety. Bideford hit back immediately from the restart with a long ball over the top of the Falmouth defence, which the dangerous Bideford #11 Javan Wright latched on to, but he was foiled in the box with a great last-ditch tackle from Cook.

There continued to be very little difference between the sides until the 28th minute when Ned Symons got his reward for some relentless harrying and closing down by forcing a mistake from Gwillam. Gwillam looked to have an easy clearance from a Falmouth through ball, but before he knew it, Symons was upon him and deflected his attempted punt up-field into the path of Luke Barner, who calmly steered the ball inside Gwillam’s far-post to make it 1-0 to Falmouth.

Bideford immediately won a free kick deep inside the Falmouth half and whipped in a cross which they were unlucky not to convert with a header which just missed Falmouth keeper Morgan Jones’ far post.
On 42 minutes Massey ran on to another through ball, but pulled his left foot shot past the far post and the half ended at 1-0 to the home side.

With no changes made at half-time, the next chance came 5 minutes in when Barner was put through with only the keeper to beat, but Gwillam saved well with his feet. The next minute, Falmouth had another chance where Ned Symons created further havoc in the Bideford 6-yard box before squaring for Massey to score, but Massey was deemed offside and the score remained at 1-0.

From then on, Bideford became the dominant team as they refreshed their ranks with a number of substitutions. The tricky Faron Simons was looking particularly effective and he looked to have been brought down in the box after a mazey run on 13 minutes, but referee Andrew Hobbs waved the appeals away.

With around 20 minutes to go, manager John Fabby made a triple change introducing the energy of Jack Webber into midfield for Andy Elcock, Olly Evans replacing Jack Symons and Tom Annear coming on for Malachi Davy. Falmouth then started to look more of a threat, but Bideford were not finished yet and 6 minutes from the end of normal time, Falmouth had young keeper Jones to thank for keeping them ahead with a great reflex save from a snap-shot from inside his area.

With Bideford pushing for the equaliser, the final chance of the game fell to Olly Evans on 90 minutes as he went one on one against Gwillam, but saw his shot fly narrowly wide.

11 minutes of stoppage time followed, but Falmouth held firm with their back-line of Cook, who looked solid throughout, Jewell, Annear and Leivers, being equal to everything Bideford could throw at them. All told it was a promising start to the new campaign under John Fabby with good attitude and commitment shown, and the season can now be approached with cautious optimism on this showing.
Falmouth will now travel to Street, of the Western League, in the next round on 22nd September and will hope for another lucrative win as they settle into what will, as always, be a challenging season at Southern League level. Before that, they have their first league game on Tuesday night under the new floodlights against Devon neighbours Willand Rovers, and will be hoping for three valuable points to kick-start the season.

Falmouth Town: Morgan Jones, Malachi Davy, Harrison Jewell, Bradley Leivers, Max Cook, Jared Sims©, Andy Elcock, Jack Symons, Luke Barner, Oscar Massey, Ned Symons. Subs: Tom Annear, Olly Evans, Aaron Ibbotsen, Josh Bissett, Jack Webber, Freddie Start-Walter.

Bideford Town: Luke Gwillam, Jack Margorotte, Alex Byrne©, Harley Sneap, Aaron Taylor, Sam Wright, Faron Simons, Archie Reay, Finlay Newell, Ryan Downing, Javan Wright. Subs: Harvey Field, Ryan Turner, Jamie Hearsey, Luke Ford, Jordan Ewing, Oliver Gardner, Brad Williams.
Ref: Andrew Hobbs.