Saturday 9 September2006

Grampound 1-2 Roche

(Duchy league Division 3)
Back to Fixtures

Grampound opened brightly and had much the better of the opening exchanges. The suspended Maker and unavailable Harris were missing from midfield but this did not seem to matter as Grampound rolled forward putting in a number of enticing crosses. A slight lack of conviction in front of goal meant that this good play went to waste, and after 25 minutes Roche took the lead in their first meaningful attack when Richard Ralph flicked on for Paul O’Mahony to open the scoring with a left foot shot across Ford in the Grampound goal. Ten minutes later, a free kick was not cleared and Ross Julian added a slightly fortunate second. Webb hobbled off with a knee injury just before half-time to add to Grampound's problems.

Grampound should have reduced the arrears in the first minute of the second half when a good run and cross by Weeks was met by Ford but his close-range shot was well saved by the visiting keeper. After Tony Ford had made a superb save at the other end, Grampound looked the most likely to score and a number of half-chances went begging. Grampound were guilty of trying to set up the perfect shooting opportunity instead of taking what was on offer and paid the price, although a shot from Moseley deserved a goal as he got on the end of a pull-back from Ford but his effort was brilliantly tipped over. With 10 minutes remaining, a Cooper header from a corner was heading for the back of the net when a Roche arm extended and stopped it on the goal-line. A more blatant penalty has rarely been seen at the Rec. but referee Barry Matthews, less than 5 yards from the incident, denied Grampound and captain Ford was shown yellow for complaining too loudly. Perhaps the referee realised that he would have had to have shown a red card if he had awarded the penalty. Five minutes later, Ford's header hit the bar and as players jumped for the rebound, the referee awarded a penalty for a push or elbow on Moseley which only he saw, possibly deciding that two wrongs, on this occasion, somehow made a right. Keith Cotterill despatched the spot kick into the top corner, sending the keeper the wrong way. In the remaining minutes Grampound made a couple more half chances, both snatched at and missed, allowing Roche to go home with all the points.

Squad

1. Ford T
2. Woodman A
3. Leaney
4. Webb J (sub Toms, 40)
5. Weeks
6. Cooper
7. Cotterill
8. Moseley
9. Dunn G
10. Bawden (sub James R, 70)
11. Ford G

Goals

Cotterill (80, pen)

Man of the Match

Dai Moseley

Yellow Cards

Glyn Ford

Red Cards

Nonen of the Match Yellow Cards Red Cards