Sunday, May 13

Launceston Cup final at Launceston Football Club

Lanreath 2

DOBWALLS fought back twice to win the Launceston Cup for the first time since 2001 with a 3-2 victory over Lanreath at a sunny Pennygillam.

This South East Cornwall derby between two sides in mid-table in Division Three of the JJ Jones and Sons Duchy League promised to be close and so it proved.

Lanreath, who were playing in their first ever final and beat defending champions Boscastle in the last four, took the lead after ten minutes when man-of-the-match Matt Baker fired a penalty past Jordon Goodison-Powell after a foul on Paul Merritt.

Dobwalls captain Scott Corson came close to scoring an equaliser but his shot struck the post, however they drew level just after the half-hour mark when Sam Humagain intercepted a Lanreath clearance before advancing a few yards and stroking the ball beyond Pete James.

The rest of the half was relatively com­fortable for both sides as they went into the break all square at 1-1.

With Dobwalls looking the livelier, it meant that Lanreath had to rely on the counter-attack and from one of these they regained the lead when Joss Turner curled a lovely left-footed shot into the corner from the right-hand edge of the penalty area.

Dobwalls continued to apply pressure, and with Corson chasing down a long ball down the left wing, he squared it back for substitute Shane Hanley to smash a shot into the back of the net from just inside the penalty area.

The Liskeard-based club really had their tails up and were rewarded when a free-kick from Matt Bryant was not cleared, which allowed Ben Gaynor to head the ball back into the box for player/manager Steve Luscombe to fire in a left-footed volley and secure the cup the first time in 17 years.

A closely-fought final was well controlled by referee Tony Rogers, while the cup was presented by Brian Conyon MBE.