Foxhole 1-1 St Austell

[DanBlazey]

Attedance: around 175.

Two red cards and multiple bookings came out of a dirty local derby up at a freezing Foxhole. Both teams seemed to be ignoring the season of goodwill as they came out to win at all costs, play dirty and in some cases, simply pick a fight. The standard was poor and how on earth the much talked about St Austell failed to break down a nine man Foxhole, I'll never know!

After today's farcical proceedings between supposedly two of the best sides in the league, I'm happy to report that the standard of SWPL West is most certainly NOT higher than that of the SWPL Premier as some have come on here to imply recently. There is, however, much greater interest in the local players on view.

[David Bray]

Crowd of 211 i was told.

Goalscorers Ollie Brokenshire for St.Austell and Carl Rickard for Foxhole.

Not a game for the purists!!!

But never a dull moment.

A good day for the County Treasurer.

Happy New Year. :drink:

[Guest Hobbsy]

how come mike body didnt play 2day?!

[Guest Peppermint]

Mike Body did play.

In reply to Danblazey - very unfair to make a judgement re St Austell and the standard of the league on one game because of the local derby element and a frozen surface football was going to be difficult.

Don't forget the week before I saw St Austell play Premier League side Wadebridge Town off the park in their 6-2 win. Name me many better striking partnerships than Body and Nancarrow in the Premier League.

I thought the heavy handed referee did not help the cause and this led to a disjointed match.Saying that Foxhole will be happy with a point after finishing the match with nine men and St Austell seem to lose their way after half time. I am looking forward to Darin Morse's excellent reports -- it may be on the Forum already but I have not looked yet.

[Darin Morse]

Foxhole 1 St Austell 1

Saturday 27 th December 2008

So far this season Foxhole have been lucky to come across some excellent referees. Step forward Alan Hoon and Jason Haywood. Take a bow Steve Rose and Andrew Quinn. All of these displayed outstanding man-management and level-headedness, knowing when to exert authority and when a friendly but firm warning was more appropriate. All were aware that, for the most part, the game at this level is generally contested by twenty-two players genuinely attempting to do their best for their club. These officials see no need to wave cards around at the merest hint of physical contact, realising over-zealousness not only invariably affects the destiny and quality of a match, but also inevitably leads to derision from supporters.

Regrettably, Mr Paul's approach was somewhat distinct from these top referees. Eleven yellow cards (since you ask, none of them for dissent) and two reds, though, don't tell the full story as his, er, indifferent performance was exacerbated by missing Giles' blatant late foul on Butler in the box and an inexplicable failure to deem last man Whetter's foul on Rickard in the first half worthy of an early bath. So Foxhole can take a lot of credit for earning a deserved point after Griffin's bizarre dismissal just before the half hour for an indiscretion apparently so minor as to be indetectable, followed ten minutes from the end by Bromley's second caution after a mistimed challenge on Douglas.

St Austell had gone ahead in the second minute when a sweeping move found Nancarrow, whose early ball presented the admirable Brokenshire with an easy chance to beat Holland at the near post, and they could have killed the game as Body turned Hobbs before firing just wide, and Isbell's free-kick flashed across goal. The first of the cautions duly arrived after twelve minutes when Griffin was grounded by Douglas and took exception to both his foul, and his gloves and pink boots. Within moments, Bromley and Warne joined them in the book for innocuous challenges on Isbell and Lean respectively; Body then also had his name taken for clattering into Holland before he scuffed an effort after being released by Nancarrow. This proved to be the last time Body was to escape the clutches of the impressive Hobbs, and the Foxes, with Rowe again outstanding,repelled the predictable visiting attacks for the rest of the afternoon, particularly once the combative Prince was pushed into midfield to add some devil. Town's defence had looked susceptible to the long-ball, and in one such attack Whetter had his moment of incredible good fortune, and the referee's poor decision was made to appear even worse when he immediately dismissed Griffin to the bemusement of all present. Next to see yellow, for a trip on Butler, was Brokenshire, whose floated free-kick was then headed tamely into the keeper's hands by Nancarrow, while Lean's name was taken next, for handball.

Although Giles blazed wide Isbell's deep free-kick soon after the restart, St Austell rarely looked capable of capitalising on their man advantage as the game deteriorated into an even more scrappy affair in the biting wind. However, Bromley's effort inspired the Foxes to swarm forward and they equalised on 64 when Whetter's misdirected backheader was seized on by the hobbling Rickard to finish calmly, and he may have sealed a miraculous victory had his touch not twice deserted him. Giles was not having the best of days and became the sixth Town player to be cautioned (compared to only three Foxes, let it be noted) after tripping Nicholls, before his clash with Butler went unpunished. Bromley's dismissal left Foxhole to weather a late St Austell onslaught, but the only heart-stopping moment came when Phillips' toe-poke rolled just wide, Foxhole heroically defying the odds to snatch a draw.

Foxhole (4-4-2): Ryan Holland 6; Matt May 6, Lewis Prince 7, Mark Rowe 8, Phil Hobbs 8; Andrew Butler 6, Richard Griffin 5, Jason Warne 6, Adam Bromley 8; Liam Nicholls 6 (sub. David Grose 5), Carl Rickard 7 (sub. Kyle Friendship 5).

St Austell (3-5-2): Martin Quantick; Dan Lean, Lee Whetter, Martin Giles; Will Tinsley (sub. Chris Phillips), Josh Higman, Ollie Brokenshire, Jay Isbell, Ben Douglas; Michael Body, Daniel Nancarrow.

Referee: Mr Steve Paul (Camelford) 4.

[DanBlazey]

I'm not normally one to jump to Steve Paul's defence - he's "done" us enough over the years, but he did have to get the players under control somehow. Having said that, he was probably overzealous with the yellow cards, but I would rather see that than letting some of those out of control tackles continue unchallenged.

Peppermint, the pitch wasn't frozen.

[Sir Alex]

I saw Phil Hobbs in Asda last evening and Body was still wriggling around in his pocket!!!

[Guest Peppermint]

Fair enough Danblazey the pitch was not actually frozen but it was certainly very hard and unforgiving. No comment re the slating of the standard of the teams in the Division 1 West however. I have seen a number of games this year in the Premier and Division 1 West and in both leagues I have witnessed some dreadful performances and some good ones.

I just thought it very unfair to say St Austell are not a good side on one performance - after their drubbing of Wadebridge who are in about the same position as your team in the table last week they certainly look a good team.

Forgot the most important thing - thanks Darin for the report - great as usual.

[DanBlazey]

Fair comments, Peppermint. To be honest, I've had a bee in my bonnet lately about some people coming on here saying the lower leagues are stronger. I've seen two or three games in SWPL West now and I still think the Premier section is stronger. No doubt though that there are some decent players in the West who don't want the travelling to the likes of Cullompton and Witheridge.

[Guest Peppermint]

Thanks for the posting Danblazey - it is fairly clear that any Premier League is going to be stronger on the whole than a lower league.

The game at Wadebridge was a one off cup match - I have seen the Bridgers on other occasions this year and they have been much better.

I think what a lot of people are missing is the old St Blazey v St Austell or Newquay games or Penzance v Falmouth etc but those teams under the present set up have to earn promotion and it is not easy and then some teams do not want to take the promotion for the reason you gave about players not wanting to travel so far.

Happy New Year to you -- will be Blazey for a game in the New Year - reporting so hopefully catch up with you. Always a very welcoming club.

[Andy Yeatman]

The discussion about difference in standards between premier and One West is a bit meaningless and reflects other postings about players moving around from club to club.

If we use St Austell as an example. I watched them two or three times last season and saw the game at Wadebridge a couple of weeks ago. The two St Austell sides are completely different. The one from last season tried hard but the league position at the end of the season didn't really lie. I agree with Graham that the St Austell performance at Wadebridge was excellent - going forward they were a real handful that day and fully deserved their convincing win.

But my point is that this is nothing to do with the general standard between the two divisions - it's about the standard of individual players that have moved between clubs in the two divisions.

This season's St Austell has a number of players with top level SWL and SWPL Premier experience - and that's probably the standard which the team plays at. To look at another example, Liskeard are a different team this season, currently have a number of players with One West experience and, painful to say, their results suggest this might be their current standard.