Falmouth Town 2; Frome Town 4.
Oscar Massey 6' Brendan Holmes 15', 43'
Luke Barner 65' Albie Hopkins 50', 54'
Att: 388.

Falmouth Town poked the bear after two minutes of this FA Cup First Qualifying Round tie by taking the lead against Southern Premier League Frome Town. The inevitable reaction came and Frome were level within 15 minutes. Frome then confirmed their superiority eventually running out comfortable 4-2 winners, although Falmouth had some encouraging moments and unsettled the visitors defence on a number of occasions throughout the game.

Falmouth manager John Fabby used his strong squad again, replacing Bradley Leivers with Tom Annear and Olly Evans with Jack Symons, compared with the line-up against Barnstaple on Bank Holiday Monday.

Falmouth were clearly buoyed by that last result against Barnstaple and made a dynamic start by creating the first chance after only two minutes. Jack Symons broke from midfield and played in Oscar Massey down the left, but the pass was slightly underhit and Frome Town keeper Kyle Phillips took man and ball, leaving Massey in a worrying heap in the penalty area.

Massey got up quickly though and Falmouth built on their early superiority four minutes later by taking an unlikely lead through the man himself, although the goal was deserved on the balance of play thus far. Luke Barner, who was Falmouth’s man of the match on the day, attacked the bye-line down the right and crossed low and hard to Massey who had got ahead of his defender. A simple toe-end was all it took to beat Phillips between his legs and Falmouth were one-up, courtesy of what proved to be the best goal of the game.

It was now imperative that Falmouth defended resolutely to see off the reaction to that goal as predictably Frome then started to dominate possession. In the 15th minute, an unsuccessful clearance fell in the midfield to a Frome player who launched another attack. Falmouth scrambled to win the ball back, but it eventually fell to Brendan Holmes on the right edge of the penalty area who made no mistake with a low shot, which he tucked inside of Morgan Jones far post.

The Town faithful could sense that there was a long half ahead, but hoped that if Falmouth could survive until half-time they may frustrate Frome into making a mistake or over-committing. Again, flawless defending was required to achieve that goal.

Frome continued to make chances and in the 22nd minute, Sam Heal got on the end of an Albie Hopkins cross and saw his powerful volley spectacularly saved by Jones at his far post.

Falmouth were hanging on but looked like they may be able to hold out until the break. Unfortunately however, it was to be another defensive error which let Frome in again in the 43rd minute. A high ball into the heart of the Falmouth defence caused havoc and after three unsuccessful attempts to clear, the ball found it’s way to Frome’s right flank where, again, Holmes was on hand with a carbon-copy finish to his first goal, beating Jones just inside his far-post.

The half ended at 2-1 to Frome and Falmouth now needed to try to keep things tight for the opening exchanges of the 2nd half, as difficult as that would be given the quality of their opponents. However, Frome’s Albie Hopkins had other ideas as in an impressive 10 minutes spell he put the game out of Falmouth’s reach.

With five minutes having been played, a cross into the box found Hopkins on the penalty spot. Despite the attentions of the Falmouth defenders, he rose the highest and nodded the ball just out of the reach of Jones. Four minutes later he had struck again. Receiving the ball just inside the Falmouth area, he turned neatly, feigned a shot and then calmly passed the ball into the net to make it 4-1.
The feeling in the ground was that Falmouth may end up being on the end of a big defeat, and six minutes later those fears looked like being confirmed when Falmouth conceded a penalty. Frome’s Calum Gould stepped up but saw his powerful shot turned around the post by the mercurial Morgan Jones in what was another accomplished display between the posts.

The missed penalty seemed to energise the home side, and with 15 minutes to go they got one back through Luke Barner, who side-footed a botched clearance past Kyle Phillips and into the net.

Excitement levels rose in the crowd. Could Falmouth stage an unlikely comeback? The answer was no, despite the best efforts of the Falmouth forwards, and Frome comfortably saw out the remainder of the game and progressed to the next round, where they will host the in-form Plymouth Parkway.

Falmouth can now look towards improving their position in the Southern Premier Division One South table as they host new-boys Worcester Raiders on Saturday. They will be hoping for another 400+ turn-out from the Falmouth faithful to spur them on to get their second league win of the season.

Falmouth Town: Morgan Jones, Max Cook, Tom Annear, Jared Sims(c), Luke Barner, Liam Prynn, Oscar Massey, Jack Symons, Harrison Jewell, Malachi Davy, Andy Elcock. Subs: Ollie Evans, Bradley Leivers, Ned Symons, Jack Webber, Josh Bissett, Toby Fletcher(GK).

Frome Town: Kyle Phillips, Brendan Holmes, Sam Heal, Sam Teale©, Harry Lucas, Calum Gould, Archie Ferris, Albie Hopkins, Warren Maidment, Josh Owers, Sam Meakes. Subs: Jon Davies, George Dowling, Zack Sali, Dan Brabhem, David Durm, Harris Feltham, Ciaran Walsh.

Ref: Andrew Long.