Duchy League

A FEW Duchy League fixtures survived the latest rain storms as the fixture congestion grows even greater.

St Minver opened up a nine-point lead at the top of the Premier division after beating St Dominic 6-0.

The opening half hour was quite even with Chris Lynch, in the home goal, making two cracking saves.

The deadlock was broken on 35 minutes when St Minver skipper Dayll Beesley headed home a corner.

This opened the game up but Minver were unable to capitalise again before half time, going in at the break one goal to the good.

After some subtle tactical changes at the interval, Minver started the second half in fine form, moving the ball around at pace.

Football matches can change in an instant and in the 50th minute there was a prime example. The ever-battling St Dominick skipper Kieran Wenmouth hit a screamer from 30 yards and it flew past the despairing Chris Andrews in goal but cannoned back off the top of the crossbar. From the rebound, the loose ball was fed to Minver’s Ryan Pooley wide left and he cut in and fired in a shot that eluded the dive of Lynch to make it 2-0.

It could easily have been 1-1 moments before but this gave the visitors some breathing space and from then on the game opened up.

Two minutes later Callum Wilson made it 3-0 and put the game out of reach of the hosts.

With the pitch deteriorating, St Dominic tired and St Minver struck three more goals late on. Mike Green, on as a substitute, made an immediate impact as his lofted header from a corner hit the back of the net.

The last ten minutes were made for St Minver man of the match Corey Cleave. After an excellent performance at left back, he was given the freedom to play further forward, in his preferred midfield position, and he first converted a penalty calmly to make it 5-0 before finishing off a fine team goal with a calm finish for 6-0.

In Division One, St Columb Major remain in the bottom two after losing 3-2 at home to LC Phoenix. Full credit to the hosts and referee for letting this match go ahead, in what were very poor conditions — setting a fine example to how this season’s leagues will get finished on time.

The visitors dominated the play in the early stages, passing the ball around nicely on a very softy surface, and created a handful on chances — none of which were taken due to some good goalkeeping as well as some poor finishing.

They were afterall without their regular centre-forward Jake Benney who was away taking part in BBC’s Bargain Hunt.

Keeper-turn-striker Nick Oldaker almost broke the deadlock after 20 minutes when he rounded the advancing home custodian only to be denied by the raising of the linesman’s flag for offside.

With ten minutes to go before half-time, the visitors were awarded a freekick 30 yards from goal, and with quick-thinking, as the St Columb goalkeeper was setting his wall, Oldaker was given the greenlight from the referee to take the kick, and with that, he bent it into the empty left-hand side of the goal to send his side into the break 1-0 up.

Phoenix came out for the second period knowing it was important to kill the game off early, as they looked for victory in the first match since December 5.

Starting well, the Knights doubled their lead when a well-worked move down the right saw Joe Davis get around the back of the fullback to cut the ball back for Cameron Bailey to slot home.

Just five minutes later it was 3-0, with the goal of the game. Another freekick, this time from 25 yards out, had three Phoenix players stood over it, but it was Oldaker who struck again with his magical left foot, bending the ball into the top corner of the goal — leaving the goalkeeper with no chance.

St Columb battled ferociously until the final whistle and, with the visitors penned back in the thick mud that dominated their half, scored twice as they piled players forward.

Phoenix managed to hold on though and with the final whistle sounding, they moved up from eighth to fifth in the league, still with games in hand.

In Division Three, Delabole won 3-0 at home to Grampound reserves and move even closer to the leading two. Goals came through man of the match Jordan Blanchard, Luke King and a Mark Wherry own goal.