LAUNCESTON Football Club’s first team head into the new season looking to put behind a ‘frustrating’ season behind them, writes David Sillifant.

The Clarets endured a mixed season last term finishing 14th in the Carlsberg South West Peninsula League Premier Division, with an incredible 17 league draws from 38 league games, the highest in the history of the division.

Despite conceding just 58 goals, they could only muster 51 themselves, the joint second worst in the division.

But following a summer which has seen the squad again broken up, manager Gary Jeffery, is expecting to push for a top-eight finish and a good cup run in either the League Cup or the Cornwall Senior Cup.

That positivity is entirely understandable. Despite losing four players to big-spending Plymouth Parkway, including key striker Sam Davey, and a couple of others, the spine of the Pennygillam outfit looks extremely strong.

In goal, former Plymouth Argyle youngster, Ollie Chenoweth, is one of the top goalkeepers in the league, while new signings James Bradley (ex-Plymouth Argyle youngster) and Sam Hill (Callington), (two of six new signings), should enhance an already strong defence.

In midfield, former Football League star Bobby Hopkinson will likely link up with Liam Tilley in the centre to provide the chances for Danny Zalick and Jack Alexander who has joined from Ivybridge.

Added to that, Jeffery has used his coaching connections with Marjon University to tempt some of their young players to join the club, including 20-year-old striker Reuben Kane.

Pre-season was a resounding success with plenty of goals. In their five pre-season fixtures, they drew 3-3 against Barnstaple after being two goals down, drew 2-2 with Marjon and scored 17 goals in three victories against Callington Town Reserves, Holsworthy and Vospers Oak Villa.

Gary said: “This season is a case of us trying to turn some of last season’s draws into wins. Last season we didn’t do badly at all during matches, we created opportunities but didn’t take our chances and that is why we finished were we did. But 14th was way to low for what our performances merited.

“I remember a game at Falmouth where we played with nine-men for the whole of the second-half and we still should have won so it shows that we’re not far away, and that will be the challenge for us this season, to maintain our defensive solidity and start to put away more chances.”

The Clarets got their campaign off to an excellent start on Saturday when they beat recently promoted Tiverton Town Reserves 2-1 at Pennygillam thanks to goals from Ryan Tetley and Lee Rundle.

Things have been much quieter at Camelford.

Last season, manager Reg Hambly celebrated his 25th season in charge with a miraculous late run to see them avoid the drop into the South West Peninsula Division One West.

In the end they finished just one point behind Launceston, and while Clarets boss Gary Jeffery is looking for a top-eight finish, Reg is more content that he’s been able to keep the majority of his squad together.

Reg said: “My main focus over the summer was keeping as much of the squad from the end of last season together as I could and we’ve done that quite well. Although we’ve lost Paul Hider in goal, which is obviously a bit of a blow and experienced heads like Dan Metherell and Kevin Murt, things are looking quite good for us so we’re relatively pleased.

“We know it’s an extremely strong league, especially with the introduction of Tiverton and Argyle’s reserve teams but we’ll be fairly pleased to be comfortable in mid-table and have a really good cup run to earn money for the club.”

Hider, the former Truro City and Launceston goalkeeper, has rejoined Bideford to play in the Evo-Stik Southern One South and West Division and his loss will be keenly felt.

In a bid to replace him, Hambly has turned to Cornish football to sign AJ Owen and Josh Grills from local clubs Lostwithiel and St Teath to provide competition for each other, while Metherall has joined Launceston and Murt is taking a year out of the game.

Youth will also be given a chance at Trefrew Park. Reg has signed young midfielders Josh Penrose and Tyler Cheshire, who have been playing for the Cornwall youth team, and utility player Alex Ahearn from neighbours Wadebridge.

The injection of pace has given Camelford an extra dimension, leaving Reg likely to start the season in a 4-3-3 formation.

Reg said: “We’ve tried a number of formation’s during our pre-season games. Although results haven’t always one our way due to being unable to field our strongest side on a regular basis, and because of the refurbishment of our pitch, when we have been able to get our strongest side out we’ve looked good.

We’ve looked quite compact and with the added pace we now have in the team, we should be really dangerous on the counter attack.”

That style of football will be helped by the pitch upgrade at Trefrew Park. Last winter’s awful weather, meant that £3,000 has been splashed out, although that figure has been kept in check by the hardy band of volunteers who look after the ground.

Camelford opened their season on?Saturday with a 2-1 defeat at Godolphin Athletic despite taking a first-half lead through Jason Cordice.

In the South West Pensinsula Division One West, Holsworthy manager Liam Dart is simply looking to ‘improve again’.

The Magpies finished in a creditable 11th last term, firmly in the middle of the table.

With a modest budget at Upcott Field, Dart is realistic that they aren’t going to win the title, especially with the likes of recently relegated Elburton Villa reportedly splashing the cash.

Liam said: “The simple aim for me this season is to just get better. We know we’re not going to win the league as lots of teams like Elburton Villa and the teams right down West have budgets we can only dream of. Down at places like Penzance, Wendron and Porthleven, players are constantly on the move so it’s hard to keep up to date with it all. We’ll just focus on ourselves and see how we get on.”

Pre-season has been a nightmare as usual for Dart, who has spent just over two years in the job.

Many of Holsworthy’s players struggle to get time off in the summer. Farmers, roadworkers and firemen are just some of the day jobs of the players at the club, meaning pre-season matches are rarely played with their strongest side.

Added to that, goalkeeper and last season’s player of the year, Ryan Walter, will miss the first few Saturday’s of the season due to his cricket commitments.

Despite that and the mixed results in pre-season, which saw them lose to higher opposition such as Parkway, Launceston and Camelford, Dart has been encouraged by their work on the training field.

Liam said: “In pre-season we’ve been working on our patterns and passing the ball around crisply. I know we’ve got a lot of goals in us. Up front we have Adam Smith, Dom Abbott, Nathan Bonney amongst others, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

In the off season, things have been very quiet. Dart has brought in defender Lee Clarke from Bradworthy and midfielder Lloyd Scaise from Morwenstow, while no-one has left, meaning a settled squad is in place. Being able to stabilise is one of the key things Dart wants to achieve at Holsworthy. Before he took over, there had been a whole heap of managers over the previous years. “Stability is what this club needs. It needs somebody to be here for a long period of time to give the club an identity again and a style of football which we can be proud of.”