Foxhole 1 Newquay 1

[Darin Morse]

Foxhole 1 Newquay 1

Saturday 1st December 2007

The weather in Foxhole at this time of year is rather like the good people of Iraq - either sunni or shiite. Of course, Saturday was very stormy, so I decided not to leave the house too early (in any case, I had a new book to read - "Great Expectations", but it wasn't as good as I thought it would be). The tie was a difficult one to predict as, until the great victory at Dobwalls, we had been going through such a bad period it was rumoured Tampax had been approached to be our new sponsors. Unfortunately, the gale ensured the match seldom rose above the abysmal, but at least Foxhole proved the better of two average teams.

A rare flowing move culminated with Warne shooting tamely at the keeper on 16 minutes, while Hill fired wide shortly afterwards and both Rowe and Warne tried their luck with wind assisted free-kicks, but generally it was desperately scrappy stuff, each side's midfield quintet offering little except to cancel each other out.

The second half was similarly nondescript, although Foxhole did finally realise the folly of providing Harvey with heading practice. A firm volley from Andy Morris tested Ryan Holland, who then nervously fumbled Rushton's effort over the bar as Newquay woke up at last, but the two best opportunities fell to Fairclough and Giles, but their finishing was sadly unconvincing.

In extra time, Panter and Giles went close to breaking the grim deadlock, before a series of inswinging Warne corners brought alarm to the visiting defence, who then failed to clear a hopeful long ball, allowing Rowe to sidefoot home with only 7 minutes left. Newquay had appeared so ineffective in attack, going forward about as often as the clocks, that it was a genuine disappointment that the Foxes permitted a sloppy immediate reply. Rowe was caught unnecessarily upfield attempting to gather a stray pass from May, the otherwise subdued Dingle crossed from the right and substitute Hunter slotted into the corner with his first touch.

Foxhole (3-5-2): Ryan Holland 6; Colin Morris 7, David Grose 7, Mark Rowe 7; Richard Fairclough 6, Martin Giles 6 (sub. Andrew May 5), Steve Panter 6, Jeff Dillon 5, Jason Warne 6; Scott Hill 5 (sub. Liam Nicholls 6), Adam Holland 5 (sub. Jamie Bullock 5).

Newquay (3-5-2): Billy Holland; Oliver Dart, Andy Morris, Perry Harvey; Sam Hunter, Luke Rigby, Sean Middleton, Patrick Rushton, Adam Bromley (sub. Jack Hunter); Liam Dingle, Peter Batenberg.

Referee: Mr Tony Allen (Bodmin) 7.

[Guest The Judge aka RED OR DEAD]

A match which had draw written all over it from the start, neither side deserved to lose or win depending on how you looked at it.

Foxhole openly admitted they would rather not go to Launceston, thank you very much and Newquay fans were almost willing Foxhole to score during extra time to end the tedium. However, when the home side did eventually test Billy Holland after 110 mins and the ball ended up between the posts rather than the 10 yards wide that Foxes had managed previously, the silence from the 'away' end of the stand spoke volumes. Normal football mentality took over and the Peppermints fans urged their side onto the equalizer and a replay at Mount Wise this Saturday 2pm (I can see this going to penalties).

Foxes keeper made two superb saves and managed to fumble the ball over the bar from a 25 yard free kick. Newquay lacked width which suprised the away supporters as Adam Bromley returned from injury and it was left to Midfield General, Sean Middleton to run the show, he must have covered every blade of grass in his attempt to liven things up. Thes rest of my comments on this 2nd dour match between the 2 sides will appear in WISE WORDS (subject to them being edited by the club) in Saturdays match programme.

Perhaps it will be 3rd time luck and we will witness a cracker !

[Guest Peppermint]

Excellent and entertaining report from Darin again. One small point - I have had it confirmed by the Newquay management that the equaliser was scored by young Luke Rigby and not sub. Jack Hunter.

I cannot quite understand why anyone would not want their team to progress just because it is to visit Launceston. Surely both teams would welcome the chance to play Premier League opposition. The Charity Cup game at Mount Wise against Torpoint Athletic was a cracking match and the Peppermints did raise their game that evening and are now looking forward to a home tie against my tip for the Premier League title - Saltash United. Sorry to all the Saltash supporters for putting their team under that pressure because my predicitions are not often right!