Foxhole 1 Wadebridge 3

[Darin Morse]

Foxhole 1 Wadebridge 3

Saturday 5th January 2007

Foxhole were well beaten by a better organised, more mobile and slicker Wadebridge outfit, who possessed in Insley a tower of strength in midfield. The Foxes never recovered from falling behind after only 95 seconds, the impressive Wolstencroft rising unchallenged at the far post to meet Dowling's corner although, as has often been the case this season, an inability to work the opposition keeper was all too evident. Warne failed to convert a low cross by Griffin who had earlier lobbed over from distance, Panter headed wide Rowe's free kick, while Rickard, still finding his feet in a striped shirt, drove too high from 20 yards and Dillon blazed wildly after Warne's centre fell invitingly into his path, as Gears was repeatedly required merely to retrieve the ball from the car park.

Wadebridge created fewer clear-cut opportunities but always appeared capable of exploiting a shaky looking home defence and duly added a second moments prior to the break. Wolstencroft, who had previously run clear only to fire wastefully over, then capitalised on a disastrous offside trap to unselfishly square for Bridgeman, afforded the freedom of Goverseth, to tap home.

Alas, the palpable shortage of pace and energy at the heart of the Foxhole midfield was left unaddressed at half-time, and with little improvement in the quality of finishing either, the second period followed a depressingly familiar pattern. Hopes of salvaging at least a point effectively evaporated on the hour when, shortly after Griffin had somehow headed a tempting Warne dead ball over the crossbar from underneath it, Beesley made it 3-0 as the static Holland awaited an offside decision against Cameron, who was controversially adjudged to be inactive, a description appropriate to too many Foxes on the day.

Disappointingly, the referee had already chosen to exert his authority by waving around yellow cards for offences that may have been more justly punished by a wagging finger and a quiet word, so it was no surprise that the names of the protesting Dillon and Hill joined those of Griffin, Giles and Panter in the Mr Whaley's ever bulging notebook.

Harris almost notched a fourth and Insley headed a Cameron cross wide from fully 20 yards, but Foxhole's spirited attempts to engineer an unlikely fightback were rewarded with Rickard's fine finish on 83 minutes, having been cleverly found by Griffin, who had just snatched at yet another good chance. Rickard then saw a shot on the turn deflected past the upright with Gears scrambling, but the damage had been done.

Foxhole (3-5-2): Ryan Holland 5; Colin Morris 5, Mark Rowe 6, Richard Fairclough 6; Jason Warne 6, Martin Giles 5 (sub. Scott Hill 5), Adam Bromley 5, Steve Panter 5 (sub. Liam Nicholls 5), Jeff Dillon 5 (sub. Adam Holland 6); Carl Rickard 6, Richard Griffin 6.

Wadebridge (4-4-2): Mark Gears; James Cudmore, Aiden Dodd, Chris Simmons, Duncan Watson (sub. Martin Cook); Gary Bridgeman (sub. Lee Cameron), Nick Dowling, Josh Insley, Dayll Beesley (sub. Dan Puleston); Andy Harris, Chris Wolstencroft.

Referee: Mr M Whaley (Plymouth) 6.