By Kevin Marriott

WESTERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION

Clevedon Town 3 St Austell 0

SINCE reaching the Cornwall Senior Cup final on March 5, St Austell have lost four of their five league games and it would be easy to suggest the players’ eyes are on the county showdown against Falmouth Town.

But that’s far from the true story as the last month has seen the Lillywhites ravaged by injuries, culminating in travelling to second in the table Clevedon with only 11 fit players.

Chris Knight’s side fell behind to a dubious 30th minute Freddie King penalty after Jake Shaw was judged to have handled, but they held their own until the late stages when the home side were able to freshen things up by using all five of their substitutes.

King doubled Clevedon’s lead after 81 minutes and a Syd Camper strike two minutes into time added on completed the scoring and gave Clevedon a sixth successive league win in their pursuit of Portishead Town.

Knight said: “The last month of the season is a bit like me on a night out these days – I’m already thinking about the end and I’ve still got a few drinks to go!

“Going to Clevedon with a bare 11 – six of which had to play out of position – is obviously far from ideal. I know the teamsheet shows three subs but none of them could even warm up with their injuries, so to be perfectly honest they were only there to support their team mates and help me out.

“And that sums these boys up. I couldn’t care less about the result to be honest, three lads giving up their day driving to Bristol just to help me out on the day and be named as a sub says all you need to know.

“We may have struggled the last month but our togetherness is brilliant.”

Knight went on: “Again loads of people will see the score and think we’ve sloped off from Bristol all fed up with each other etc, but it couldn’t be further from the truth as it’s brought us closer together.

“We know you can’t have six players missing, play a totally new formation and have no subs and win at Clevedon, but we fought for each other and we really frustrated them.

“We were 1-0 down to the worst penalty decision I’ve ever seen; we just ran out of legs in the end as you will with nobody to bring on, they make all five subs and obviously over run us, it’s basic maths really.

“I couldn’t be happier with how much effort the lads gave, it’s a great bunch and they’d do anything for me; I respect them massively.”

He added: “We’ve known for five weeks our season is basically one game and unfortunately that’s meant a drop-off in league form.

“It is what it is, we will try and patch a few up this week and go again.”

The Lillywhites are at home to neighbours St Blazey on Good Friday (11am).

ST AUSTELL: Andy Collings, Jake Shaw, Martyn Duff, Alex Hamley, Olly Brokenshire, Callum Watson, Neil Slateford (capt), George Marris, Jamie Gilbert, Kieron Bishop, Ryan Downing. Subs not used: Josh Penrose, Henry Wilson, Jack Hooper.

St Austell man-of-the-match: George Marris.