Saturday, December 14

Cornwall County Men’s Cup (Group A)

Bodmin A 0

CHARLES Walker notched his first ever senior goals as Bude ran out convincing winners against a young and spirited Bodmin A side on Saturday in their second Group A clash of this year’s Cornwall County Cup.

Despite losing their opener 7-1 at league rivals Penzance opener, Bude hosted Bodmin A, who are currently eighth in South West One, the league below and utilised the game as an opportunity to give a quartet of their most promising youngsters a slice of the action.

The hosts set the tone early with an excellent work-rate and steely determination resulting in a few warning shots before sustained pressure lead to a goalmouth scramble with Jon Elliot on hand at the back post to force the ball home to open the scoring.

Further chances came and went for Bude until Henry Gwynn-Thomas made it 2-0 midway through the half. But he was not finished as soon after he doubled his tally when he unleashed an unstoppable thunderbolt from the edge of the right-hand side of D into the opposite bottom corner that was only matched by his exuberant celebrations.

Tom Fry carried over his excellent league form into the cup by making a surging solo run from the halfway line, tip-toeing his way past all the Bodmin tacklers and finishing with a drop of the shoulder to wrongfoot the keeper and shoot into an empty goal to make it 4-0 at half-time.

Bodmin started the second-half the stronger, but the Bude back three showed their defensive prowess, snuffing out every half chance Bodmin could muster. This gave the younger players great confidence to go forward, fearlessly knowing they had great cover behind them.

A composed and solid spell from the hosts ensued until late in the half when the youngsters really began to dazzle; firstly with a super slick move down the right-hand side as Zack Davis and Walker seamlessly linked up with each other and then with Cayden Gill before Walker fired home his first ever senior goal. Brandon Williamson worked relentlessly on his debut, and despite his diminutive figure, got stuck in and helped spread the ball across the pitch to Will Priest who got in on the action turning his player inside out down the left wing to find Elliot who crossed to Walker who calmly took his time making sure he cleanly flicked the ball into the back of the net for his second and put the icing on the cake of an excellent team performance.

Bude head to South West One side Truro C in their final group fixture on January 4.