Kitchen Kit South West Peninsula League Premier West

Callington Town 0

St Blazey 7

BEN Joyce scored four times as St Blazey swept aside Callington with a polished performance in a game marred by three red cards and more than a hint of controversy.

The first 20 minutes was fairly even with both sides having chances, but then the breakthrough came when from a Saints attack, the ball took a wicked deflection off Callington’s Josh Freeman Wright which left Sam Borthwick helpless in the Town goal.

On 26 minutes St Blazey were awarded a penalty on the edge of the area and Joyce fired home the resultant spot-kick.

Chaos ensued 11 minutes later when Lee Robinson was judged to have high tackled a St Blazey defender and the referee red carded the teenager. Joyce did the business from the spot to make it 3-0.

On the stroke of half-time, Joyce completed his hat-trick to send the visitors in 4-0 ahead at the break.

For the first 20 minutes of the second-half both sides traded chances with Town battling well. But being a man down and chasing the game, Carl Rickard was on hand to fire the visitors 5-0 ahead on 68 minutes. 

Two minutes later and it was 6-0 when Joyce added a fourth, before a crazy four minutes saw two red cards and a seventh goal.

St Blazey’s Hayden Bray was red carded for a high challenge but numerical parity was only briefly held as Freeman Wright followed Bray just two minute later for a similar tackle.

Lewis Phillips completed the scoring on 86 minutes as the Green and Blacks headed back down the A390 with all three points.

Penzance 0

LAUNCESTON ended a difficult week in the best possible fashion as a patched-up side cruised to victory over visiting Penzance at Pennygillam on Saturday, writes David Harrison.

The club had been rocked by the departure of first team manager Gary Jeffery who had submitted his resignation the previous weekend.

After Tuesday’s attritional Cornwall Charity Cup-tie at Newquay, interim managers Matt Hodgetts and Keith Ellacott were forced to make changes. Skipper Josh McCabe was injured at Mount Wise while Charlie Hardcastle was unwell. Mike Steele and Charley Skilton were unavailable. As a consequence, Matt Stainer and Sam Barton were handed first team debuts while Sam Watts and Mark Elvidge returned to the starting line-up.

The Pennygillam surface was in remarkably good shape after the recent deluge. A strong drying wind helped ensure that a Saturday morning pitch inspection was little more than a formality.

Launceston had been defensively sloppy in a 2-2 draw at Penzance six weeks ago. That was a game they could, and really should, have won. However they made no such mistakes this time.

The first significant action saw Tom Ellacott fire the Clarets ahead in the 17th minute with an outstanding goal. The club’s top scorer allowed a high ball to drop before firing an unstoppable 18-yard volley past Barrie Wyatt. The visiting keeper was rooted to the spot as Ellacott’s fierce drive flew past him.

After 25 minutes, with the visitors still having offered little, the Clarets doubled their lead. Barton was brought down inside the area and Ellacott, with the minimum of fuss, drove the spot-kick accurately into the corner of Wyatt’s net. 

Penzance finally fashioned a clear chance in the 43rd minute. Sam Buckley looked offside but was allowed to close in on goal. However Clarets keeper Josh Colwill was quick to advance, forcing Buckley to fire wide of an unguarded goal.

With a two-goal lead at the break, the chances of a first SWPL win since mid-October looked good for the Clarets and so it proved.

Wyatt, struggling with injury, made a superb save to deny Ruben Kane but generally Launceston were happy to see the game out without too many alarms. As a result, they duly collected three precious points that saw the Clarets leapfrog their visitors in the table and climb away from the bottom six.

Launceston welcome Godolphin Atlantic to Pennygillam on Saturday (3pm), with the Clarets looking to register back-to-back victories for the first time this season.