Foxhole 2 Penzance 0

[Darin Morse]

Foxhole 2 Penzance 0

Saturday 5th April 2008

With the gale behind them, Penzance naturally had the better of the opening half but an impressive defensive performance restricted them to few clearcut opportunities. Liddicoat proved most threatening and should have scored early on when latching on to an astute pass from the impressive Pugliese, but his shot was saved by the legs of Ryan Holland, whose poor punch on 18 minutes Liddicoat narrowly failed to capitalise on. Pugliese fired a free kick just too high but the best chance of the half fell to Rickard when he seized on Devine's poor back pass, but his finish lacked composure.

Foxhole opened the scoring seven minutes after the break, when Liam Nicholls, earlier harshly booked for an innocuous tackle on Devine, ran on to Ryan Holland's drop kick to steer the ball beyond his namesake. The Foxes then created numerous openings as the visitors faded - Warne's left-footed effort from 30 yards flew over, Nicholls miskicked in front of goal from Rickard's cross, while Rickard himself drove wide from just inside the box.

Although Letts and Burt displayed some nice touches, and both Bullock and Reynolds may on another day have found the net, Foxhole were good value for their lead and sealed the points on 86 when another clearance by Ryan Holland flicked off the head of Devine for Adam Holland to volley into the roof of the net.

Unfortunately, in a game played in a good spirit, the referee deemed it necessary to brandish his cards several more times. On 73, Liddicoat, Grose and Rickard were all cautioned after a melee before, right at the death, Liddicoat saw yellow for a foul on Rickard, whose reaction earned him an needless early bath.

Foxhole (4-4-2): Ryan Holland 7; David Grose 7 (sub. Matt May 5), Richard Fairclough 6, Mark Rowe 7, Jeff Dillon 7; Scott Hill 6, Jason Warne 6, Steve Panter 6 (sub. Tom Woodley 5), Adam Holland 6; Carl Rickard 7, Liam Nicholls 6 (sub. Colin Morris 5).

Penzance (3-5-2): Craig Nicholls; James Greet, Liam Devine, Mark Grenfell; Paul Cox, Jack Liddicoat, Steve Burt, Chris Bullock, Nick Pugliese; Stuart Reynolds, Christian Letts.

Referee: Mr Gary Davis (Torpoint) 6.