WESTERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION

Brislington 4 St Austell 1

ST AUSTELL manager Chris Knight said lessons will be learnt after a troublesome journey to Bristol left his side unprepared for their clash at Brislington.

The Lillywhites arrived at Ironmould Lane around the scheduled 3pm kick-off time and virtually stepped onto the pitch.

They then conceded a first minute goal from Joe Scadding and although Adam Carter equalised soon after, they went on to lose 4-1.

Owen Humphries (12 minutes), Asa White (60, penalty) and Jordan Scadding (83) scored the other Brislington goals.

Knight said: “It was a big learning curve for us in terms of these long away trips in that owing to a two and a half hour tailback on the M5 we had to delay the kick-off and essentially get straight out of the car and play.

“So going 1-0 down after a minute was absolutely no surprise and that’s on me as the manager to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

“Of course you can’t predict anything like that but In this league if you leave anything to chance you get found out and that proved to be the case.

“We then fought back brilliantly to equalise and then at 2-1 down for the first 20 minutes of the second half we were on top and for all the world looked like equalising.

“Then we give a penalty away and it knocks the stuffing out of us – Brislington are a really good side and to go up there missing six players shows us all that you just can’t get away with it.”

St Blazey 2 Street 3

WHEN St Blazey found themselves 2-0 down after 25 minutes against early season leaders Street at Blaise Park on Saturday, it was easy to imagine them being on the end of a heavy defeat.

But when the visitors’ striker Harry Foster needed lengthy treatment just after making it 2-0, Blazey manager Brad Richardson took the opportunity of the break in play to gather the players around him.

He gave them a no holds barred assessment of their opening 25 minutes before sending them back into action by bellowing: “Can you get us the next goal?”

To their credit, they did exactly that within two minutes as Jacob Rowe fed debut boy Alfie Fothergill to score from close range and it was game on.

Street, who made the perfect start by taking a ninth minute lead through Josh Radford, suddenly found themselves on the back foot and were fortunate still to be ahead by half-time.

Six minutes into the second half Blazey sent on Sam Clifton in place of a tired Jayden Gilbert and the home side stepped up their game even more.

Their pressure paid off in the 61st minute when Rowe beat the offside trap from a quickly taken free-kick and sidestepped Street keeper Finlay Croft before making it 2-2. 

Unfortunately Blazey weren’t level for long – in fact only three minutes – before Street regained the lead when a superb run along the right by Radford ended with a ball across the face of goal and home defender Freddie Walter converting into his own net.

Street almost made it 4-2 after 73 minutes when Scott Laird’s left foot free-kick crashed against the post with Blazey keeper Shaun Semmens beaten.

Blazey continued to press for an equaliser, with substitute Eli Evans firing just wide after an impressive burst through midfield.

Deep into time added on, Blazey won a free kick on the right and Semmens, who had sprinted from his penalty area to join the attack, got on the end of the set piece but his header cleared the bar.