Saturday 2 February 2008

Grampound 2-1 St Breward

(Duchy League Division 2)
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After the previous week's good performance against St Cleer without reward Grampound knew that an equally good performance against third bottom St Breward should seal 3 points. In an extremely tight division the visitors were only 3 points behind Grampound at kick-off so there was no margin for error.

Grampound were awful in the opening exchanges, never really getting out of first gear. A number of players were guilty of not getting tight enough to St Breward players, particularly the dangerous visiting fron ttwo of Tipton and Kay. It was therefore perhaps no surprise when St Breward did take the lead early on after Tipton was allowed to turn and run at the home defence. A tackle did come in once Tipton had reached the penalty area and the ball, via a lucky bounce, found its way to Kay with only Ford to beat. Ford did extremely well in getting a hand to the ball as Kay tried to round the keeper, but the loose ball fell to the feet of Tipton and he stroked the ball into the unguarded net.

The lively Kay danced all too easily past a couple of challenges and hit a post with a cheeky back-heel as Grampound still hadn’t woken up. Minutes later Cooper was harshly adjudged to have pushed a St Breward player in the back; however Tipton blazed the spot-kick over the bar, helped by a touch from Ford in the Grampound goal.

This was perhaps a wake up call for the home side as Grampound from this point started to take control. Maker danced past several challenges before firing just wide with a long range effort. Maker and Cooper started to dominate the midfield. Greg Dunn down the left put in a number of dangerous crosses with St Breward forced to desperate defending at times. Glyn Ford was denied by a good save from the St Breward keeper's legs in probably the home team’s best chance. Grampound’s pressure eventually told when a Dunn cross from the left was diverted past his own keeper from close range. The scores were level at the break.

Grampound had a great chance to take the lead at the start of the second half after Cooper had won the ball in the air, putting it into the path of Weeks whose flick put Ford through on goal; his shot beat the visiting keeper but was agonisingly inches wide of the post. With St Breward allowing the Grampound midfield an increasing amount of time on the ball, Maker and Cooper started to dominate the game, with Maker in particular seeing a lot of the ball. There was superb build up play but the team just could not find the back of the net. Ford had a couple of excellent chances, although was thwarted by good goalkeeping on a couple of occasions. Andy James missed the ball with the goal gaping from 4 inches, Woodman blazed an effort over that landed nearly in Tregony and Fletcher and Cooper both missed good headed chances from corners. At the other end the Grampound defence was giving very little to the St Breward forwards and with the supply line stopped Ford was a mere spectator for most of the half.

Grampound had a golden chance to take the lead with 20 minutes remaining when Greg Dunn’s strike from the edge struck the arm of a St Breward player and a penalty was awarded. However Weeks' penalty was struck down the middle of the goal and the keeper saved well with his legs.

The home side breathed a huge sigh of relief when the winning goal eventually came with only 10 minutes remaining. A cross from the right bypassed the whole team and was retrieved by Dunn on the left; his low cross was forced home by Ford at the far post. The home side then saw out the final 10 minutes with ease with Tipton fortunate to stay on the field after a couple of reckless tackles, firstly on Leaney following by a sickening lunge on Weeks.

This game could and should have been Grampound’s biggest win of the season after a host of clear cut chances were missed, however 3 points is surely the main achievement of the day.

Squad

1. Ford T
2. Webb
3. Leaney
4. Fletcher
5. Woodman A
6. JamesA (sub Dunn D)
7. Maker
8. Cooper
9. Dunn G
10. Weeks
11. Ford G

Goals

Own goal, Ford G

Man of the Match

Yellow Cards

James Webb

Red Cards

None of the Match Yellow Cards Red Cards