Falmouth Town 1: Bishops Cleeve 1
Oscar Massey 6’ Aaron Evans-Harriott 90’
Att: 306.

It was a game of two halves at Bickland Park, home of Falmouth Town, on Saturday, in this clash between 6th placed Falmouth and 7th placed Bishop’s Cleeve. Falmouth dominating the early exchanges and taking the lead after 6 minutes through Oscar Massey, only for Bishop’s Cleeve to grow into the game, dominate the latter stages and finally secure a deserved draw in the 90th minute.

With Luke Barner still unavailable, Falmouth were able to name Olly Walker in their starting line-up along with recent signing Paolo Sousa, who took his place in a central midfield role.

Falmouth started the game strongly, not allowing their visitors any possession with some great inter-passing, typical of their improved play of late. After only 6 minutes, it was Oscar Massey who made that dominance pay by opening the scoring. A ball down the right flank found Olly Walker who hit the bye-line and then picked out Massey on the edge of the box. Massey wrong-footed his full back and then cut inside, unleashing a powerful shot past the helpless Lewis Clayton in the Bishops Cleeve goal to make it 1-0.

Falmouth continued their early domination playing with great confidence, given their recent strong results, with Massey looking particularly sharp and Sousa looking assured on the ball in the middle of the park.

It was a half of few chances though and Bishops Cleeve slowly managed to get back into the game by playing high up the pitch and stifling Falmouth’s passing game, without creating any real danger to the Falmouth defence.

The half ended at 1-0 to Falmouth and the restart saw the hosts replacing Sousa with Jack Symons. With Falmouth attacking the Packet End, they were roared on by the F-Troop who provided great vocal support on the day, but Bishops Cleeve slowly began to boss the second half with striker Jamal Lawrence starting to cause problems in the home defence.

The game became very open and a series of fouls by either side was rewarded with a flurry of yellow cards issued by referee Callum Waller.

The decisive moment of the 2nd half came on 63 minutes with the introduction of Adulai Sambu from the Bishops Cleeve bench. His pace and strength provided an instant threat. Falmouth were forced to defend deep and could only clear their lines with long balls forward which were dealt with easily, and the attacks kept coming.

Mid-way through the half, and against the run of play, Falmouth had the best chance of the half so far. A stray back-pass found Liam Prynn in space. He played in substitute Olly Evans who carried the ball past keeper Clayton leaving him stranded. Evans hit the ball goalward, only to see his shot cleared off the line by the head of a Bishops Cleeve defender. It proved to be a decisive moment because, after Sambu had shaved the post with one effort ten minutes from time, following a strong run having beaten two defenders, he finally prompted the Bishop’s Cleeve breakthrough in the last minute of normal time. His cross from the bye-line, having latched on to a failed defensive clearance, found Aaron Evans-Harriott in the 18-yard box who converted to give Bishops Cleeve a deserved draw.

With other results in the league being favourable, Falmouth remain in 6th position and firmly in the play-off places. On Tuesday they have a welcome distraction when they entertain Wadebridge Town from the South-West Peninsula league as they bid to regain the Cornwall Senior Cup, having relinquished their hold on it last season after a frustrating defeat to Newquay. It will be Falmouth’s best chance of silverware this season, so they will be keen to get the win before resuming their league campaign with a visit to Melksham Town, who are languishing at the bottom of the table after a heavy 6-0 defeat to league high-flyers Swindon Supermarine on Saturday.

Falmouth Town: Morgan Jones, Max Cook, Malachy Davy, Harrison Jewell, Tom Annear, Olly Walker, Jared Sims©, Paolo Sousa, Jack Webber, Oscar Massey, Liam Prynn. Subs: Olly Evans, Luke Brabyn, Andy Elcock, Bradley Leivers, Jack Symons.

Bishops Cleeve: Lewis Clayton, Will Turner, Jake Lee, Matt Lydiard©, Ben Maclean, Jamal Lawrence, Aaron Evans-Harriott, Reegan Messenger, Harris Feltham, Steve Davis, Devanti Mcinerney. Subs: Adulai Sambu, Ross Langworthy, Shiyack Imari Sutherland, Zack Kotwica.
Referee: Callum Waller.