Falmouth Town will look to end their poor recent run against rivals Helston Athletic when they welcome them to Bickland Park in the Western League on Wednesday night (kick-off 7.45pm).
Town have lost their last six league games against Helston, and you have to go back to the 2017/18 season for Andrew Westgarth’s side’s most recent league win over the Blues – a 2-0 victory at Kellaway Park on March 30, 2018.
A recent pair of narrow 2-1 defeats at Helston only two weeks ago have contributed to a run of four losses in five games for Town – including a last-gasp 3-2 defeat at Mousehole on Saturday – despite a series of encouraging performances in said matches.
That run has seen Town slip into the bottom half of the Western League Premier Division with seven points from their first seven games, and Westgarth is keen for his side to start moving upwards again with a win on Wednesday night.
“I know we’re on a bit of a bad run and lost a few games and it probably makes Helston more important for that, we want to end this rot,” he said. “It’s all well beating St Austell [in the FA Vase], no disrespect, but we want to be judged against the sides at Step 5, not Step 6. Helston will be a big game for a number of reasons: one, a local derby; and two, we’ve got to pick up some points at home.
“In this league you can look at any game, they’re all difficult, they all present their own challenges which is great. I know we’re losing but I’m really enjoying it still.”
He added: “We’re expecting another tight game. I’m sure if we carry on the way we’re going we’ll be fine, but we’ve just got to turn those nearly moments into wins. [We’ll have a] big crowd hopefully and it should be another good game.
“We’ve not done too well against Helston lately, I think they’ve won the last five against us so we could do with stopping the rot on that as well.
“I’m looking forward to when we do start getting the rub of the green because I think we can hurt teams, like we showed against Clevedon. We’ve got the players to do it, it’s just at the minute things aren’t falling for us unfortunately.”
Victory for Town on Wednesday night would see Westgarth’s side become the first team to topple the Blues since unbeaten league leaders Bridgwater United did so on the opening day of the season.
Matt Cusack suffered a 4-0 humbling at home to the Somerset outfit in his first match in charge of the Blues, but he and Helston have since gone on an as yet unbroken eight-game unbeaten run, winning six and drawing two of those.
Their run has seen them become the last Cornish side standing in the FA Cup after they beat Torpoint Athletic 2-1 in their first qualifying round tie at The Mill on Saturday.
Last five games – Falmouth Town:
Sep 3: Mousehole 3-2 Falmouth Town (League)
Aug 29: Ashton & Backwell United 1-0 Falmouth Town (League)
Aug 27: Falmouth Town 3-1 St Austell (FA Vase)
Aug 23: Helston Athletic 2-1 Falmouth Town (League)
Aug 20: Helston Athletic 2-1 Falmouth Town (FA Cup)
Last five games – Helston Athletic:
Sep 3: Torpoint Athletic 1-2 Helston Athletic (FA Cup)
Aug 29: Helston Athletic 1-1 Sherborne Town (League)
Aug 27: Torpoint Athletic 1-2 Helston Athletic (League)
Aug 23: Helston Athletic 2-1 Falmouth Town (League)
Aug 20: Helston Athletic 2-1 Falmouth Town (FA Cup)