Foul Throw 3

Groundhopper, if you see your opposition are down to bare 11/12, it gives you a psychological edge knowing an injury/tiredness cannot be subbed off and a lack of options if you need to make changes. Would be common sense for me to name subs on a team sheet even if no intention of playing to limit this.

St Stephen 0 - 4 Torpoint Goals from Robbins, Cotter, Easterbrook, Hussey(pen). Lineup: WestallM, Quintrell, Carter, WhiteS, Hussey, Payn, Robbins, Rowe, Blair, WestallC, Easterbrook. Subs: Cotter, Northcott, Eversfield, Bartolini, Bays. Near to full availability this week after a vital bare bones victory last week at St Teath. Also nice to wake up to an email confirming we had a referee for the game after all 5 ECPL fixtures yesterday had no appointed officials due to the Vase and Junior Cup games around the county taking priority. For the 2nd time this season, we had Tom Roper as our man in the middle and again he gave us a good performance. Firm but fair and happy to talk about decisions if you ask him politely enough. A good ref! Torpoint started strongly but lacked the quality with big scoring chances missed. Easterbrook firing high and wide with time and space, Robbins smashing an effort wide when placed centrally inside the box, and a few others not taken advantage of. 15mins in Robbins did open the scoring though, and his first from open play this season, with a salmon like leap and superb header from a good Easterbrook cross. Nice to score early, but from then on I was disappointed. Maybe we thought the flood gates would open without applying ourselves. St Stephen did attack on occasion and show a glimpse of a threat with a few corners. But WestallM and the defence dealt with them well. The remainder of the half was Torpoint attacking in 3rd gear and creating opportunities without the bite. Easterbrook in particular had the host's right back on toast, but once in the box, like his team mates as well, shots were off target, saved or blocked. Unsure on whose shot it was, but one goal bound shot late in the half was superbly blocked on the line with the goalkeeper beaten to keep it at 1-0 at HT. Despite winning, it was a bit of a negative HT team talk as I felt we didn't have our foot on the gas enough. We can reach far higher levels of performance than our 1st half and I wanted more. The 2nd half didn't exactly light up, until a few changes were made. WestallC probed all half but ran into cul-de-sacs and Rowe missed an open goal from the edge of the box with the keeper stranded out wide. Cue lean back and the shot going wildly over. It wasn't until approx the 70th min that Torpoint got their 2nd, with substitute Cotter placing into the corner with the keeper getting a hand to it. With 3 subs on at this point, followed by a 4th and 5th, there was a little more impetus in our play, with Cotter and Northcott in particular getting possession and trying to drive the play forwards. This resulted in Northcott setting up top scorer Easterbrook to finally get his goal with his 10th of the season. Minutes later Easterbrook again was in on goal, but was hauled down in the box. With the ref as always positioned well it was an easy decision. Hussey despatched from the spot into the top corner. That was enough of Easterbrook for the day though and I dragged him off for myself! I'd watched him torment the defence for 80mins and I fancied having a go myself. The first time I was played in a lack of decisiveness to shoot/cross led me to trip over my own feet and a mild embarrassment. But the space in behind was clear so I did it again. This time Hussey threw the ball over the defence to shouts of "He's offside!" (From a throw-in!) and I raced in on goal. Cutting inside the centre half didn't open up the goal as planned, so cut back again and opened my body Thierry-style and placed it for what I thought was my first goal in a long long time. To my anger and disbelief the keeper tipped it round the post at full stretch. That was the last action of the game aside from WhiteS getting a rightful sin bin for a Marine sized tantrum. A 4-0 victory but in hindsight I'm a little disappointed with not being more ruthless in front of goal when the opposition were there for the taking. But 3pts and our 7th win in 8 games. Nothing to get excited about though as we're still making amends for a poor start to the league in August. Some big games coming up with SNE away next Saturday then the Cup 1/4 final on Tuesday the 2nd at The Mill. Also, kudos to The Queen's Head pub for the grub after, best spread so far this season. But at £4.85 a pint standards should be high!

All 1430ko, weather permitting. Altarnun 4 vs 1 St Teath Roche 1 vs 2 Looe St Blazey Res 1 vs 3 Marjons Res SNE 2 vs 2 Foxhole St Stephen vs Torpoint 3rds

My predicted winners Altarnun Gunnislake The winner of Illogan vs Falmouth Res to beat Millbrook Res. I'll lean towards Falmouth Res. Mousehole Res No clue about Mullion v Mawnan at all as never played either, so for amusement let's see it goes to penalties. Hayle St Dominick to beat Penryn Res & Perranporth Truro City Res

I would suggest these cup results aren't anomalies. In the last 2 incomplete ECPL seasons St Dom were 2nd and 3rd and now top the St Piran East, which with their firepower doesn't surprise me one bit. Likewise in those two "seasons" Mount Gould were 1st in both, and now they sit 2nd and unbeaten in the South Devon Football League Eastern Division. With the St Piran setup being relatively new still and not having completed any full seasons yet, it will take 2-3 years before it balances out with promotions/relegations and this has been discussed many times before.

Very interested to hear what happened between St Minver vs St Cleer. Match abandoned by the referee after a St Cleer manager/player refused to leave the field of play after a red card? Score 3-3 at the time.

Due to 3 consecutive weeks without a competitive fixture between Nov 6th and Dec 4th, Torpoint 3rd team of the ECPL are looking for opposition to host us for a friendly either on Nov 20th or 27th. Will share costs of course.

Due to 3 consecutive weeks without a competitive fixture between Nov 6th and Dec 4th, Torpoint 3rd team of the ECPL are looking for opposition to host us for a friendly either on Nov 20th or 27th. Will share costs of course.

Due to 3 consecutive weeks without a competitive fixture between Nov 6th and Dec 4th, Torpoint 3rd team of the ECPL are looking for opposition to host us for a friendly either on Nov 20th or 27th. Will share costs of course.

All 1430ko except 1500ko at Plymouth Uni. Newquay Academy 1 vs 2 Foxhole St Minver 3 vs 1 St Cleer St Newlyn East 1 vs 1 St Blazey Res St Teath vs Torpoint Athletic 3rds Plymouth Marjons Res 3 vs 0 Roche

Sticker 1sts I think. He's been "announced" by Godolphin 1sts not too long ago too.

Henry Bunning at Saltash Borough Cameron Mahoney at Millbrook Res Keiran Ryall at St Dom Harrie Tilston at St Mawgan (no idea how old he is but never seen him around until recently)

I'd make a guess that this is Scott Laughton. Bailey Trethewey isn't a bad player in midfield either but confident in Laughton.

Torpoint 9 - 1 Newquay Academy Goals from WestallC3, Easterbrook2, Payn2, WhiteJ, Hussey. Lineup: Brown, Carter, WhiteJ, WhiteS, Hussey, Payn, Robbins, Cotter, Blair, WestallC, Easterbrook. Subs: Quintrell, Bartolini, Northcott, Rowe. An empathic victory! Both teams began well and played the ball around nicely on the slick surface at The Mill. A Robbins corner on 9mins was met by the whippet Jake White darting in at the near post and heading into the net for 1-0. It was another corner which resulted in the 2nd goal, this time for Newquay to equalise on 15mins. The 3rd goal on 23mins was yet another corner, with Matty Cotter swinging an air shot worth of a fine, but the ball fell to Payn who side footed superbly into the top corner to again take the lead. This didn't deter Newquay too much and for the next 15mins both teams continued to play the ball around well. Torpoint though looked the more threatening going forward, with Hussey cracking the woodwork and Robbins driving a powerful effort wide when positioned way outside the box. With 5mins remaining of the first half, WestallC got his first of the game with a good individual goal. I screamed for him to play in Easterbrook to his left in a 2v1, but the situation gave the defender bambi legs and Skip drove past him and fired low into the corner. Moments before HT, it was WestallC again who bagged for a 4-1 lead. At HT, it wasn't over as Newquay were clearly not a bad side and I didn't want anyone to take their foot off the gas. Maybe the lads are learning their lesson as they flew out the blocks again, and Easterbrook scored around the 50min mark with a neat low finish. I think this one was enough to kill any hope for a comeback. The 6th came soon after with Payn getting another deserved goal. Skip completed his hat trick on 70mins after a number of opportunities to get it through sheer perseverance. I'd seen enough and he was off. Hussey was next on the sheet with an inswinging corner whipped in low from the right. No one dealt with it except a feeble attempt which deflected in, some say OG, I say Hussey goal. But my eyesight is like Ray Charles' so who knows. Late in the game, Easterbrook was to add to his tally for the season with the team's 9th on the day and his 7th of the season, rounding the goalkeeper and placing into the net with defenders attempting to block. A superb performance all round and it was a pleasure to watch the lads play so well. A big month ahead with no gimmies. Onto the next one, at Blaise Park for the 2nd time this season and hopefully a repeat result from the cup game.

Torpoint 3rds 9-1 Newquay Academy