By Kevin Marriott

WESTERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION

Portishead 3 St Austell 1

PORTISHEAD leapt above Clevedon Town to claim top spot in the table with victory over St Austell on Saturday – but Lillywhites manager Chris Knight was full of praise for his side.

Ethan Feltham’s strike in the fifth minute of time added on at the end gave the scoreline a more comfortable look than the home side merited after a superb second half fightback by Town.

Birthday boy Kyle Egan had opened the scoring on the half hour and when Feltham doubled the lead seven minutes into the second half, Portishead looked home and dry.

But St Austell refused to buckle and responded with striker Adam Carter reducing the arrears in the 74th minute to set up a grandstand finish.

They were pushing strongly for an equaliser when Feltham grabbed his second to finally seal the points for Portishead.

St Austell boss Knight said: “The scoreline is very harsh on my players, they were magnificent to a man, and the celebrations from them and their supporters at full-time showed you they knew they’d been in a proper game which could have gone either way.

“No complaints with getting beat, they are a magnificent team who play their pitch very well and their midfield rotations are the best I’ve seen anywhere.

“Fair play to them but at 2-1 down in the last half hour we’ve absolutely battered them and how we didn’t equalise I’ve no idea, but that’s football.

“Then of course we stick five up front going for it and they score with the last kick, and as I say 3-1 looks routine for them but it was anything but.

“Football is about fine margins and we should score twice in the opening five minutes and you know with how good they are if you don’t you can get punished, but they haven’t scored a single goal through good play it’s two set pieces and a tap-in.

“We have to cut that out as all our great play, shape and bravery, which we had in spades, goes out the window and we come home with nothing.”

Knight added: “Good luck to them, great team and they create an environment which makes it 1, very difficult for the away team but 2, the referee and I thought he was a victim of that yesterday.

“To say we were unlucky with a few decisions would be an understatement but that’s football.

“I’m sure they will go on to win it and fair play to them. Egan is the best player in the league and in Feltham up top they’ve got a match winner, you need that.

“No problem at all with my lads, they stood up to everything throughout, were brave enough to play and then when we went more direct in the last half hour we caused them no end of trouble and that’s on me, we should have done it earlier, a lesson learnt.

“A hard one to take for sure but an afternoon where I’m proud of my players and disappointed we didn’t nick something.”

ST AUSTELL: Andy Collings, Jake Shaw, Tom Whipp, Rhys Hooper, Martyn Duff; Callum Watson (River Allen), Henry Wilson; George Marris, Kieron Bishop (Ryan Downing), Adam Carter; Jack Crago. Subs not used: Josh Penrose, Olly Brokenshire.