By Kevin Marriott

WESTERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION (SATURDAY)

Saltash United 3 Oldland Abbotonians 1

THE Ashes made it five wins in seven games since the turn of the year with an impressive performance against Oldland at Kimberley Stadium on Saturday.

Saltash virtually had the points in the bag by half-time with two goals from Joe Preece (six and 41 minutes) and a cracker from Rikki Shepherd.

The second half was more of a contest and Oldland’s improvement was eventually rewarded by a consolation goal five minutes into added time.

Ashes manager Macca Brown said: “It was a brilliant victory. I was really impressed with Oldland from a footballing sense, they’re much younger than they were when we played them earlier in the season.

“But I think they’re a better team for sure, and for long spells we had to be organised and defend well which we did on a whole.

“But saying that, we probably could have scored five or six goals in that first half. We started superbly, Kieran had two great chances early on and then Preecey deservedly put us ahead and we looked to sharp in that final third, and that was all in the first five minutes.

“Credit to Oldland, they pinned us in our half for a period of time, assisted by a really strong wind which made it difficult for us to get out, but we looked so dangerous on the counter.

“We were denied a penalty and whenever we flew forward we looked like we would score.

“We then let some frustrations get the better of us as we struggled to play on a tough pitch and conditions, but when we accepted the state of play we kicked into gear and scored two brilliant goals before half-time.

“Rikki’s goal was a sensational team goal with some great link-up play before he drilled it in the bottom corner.”

Brown went on: “The second half was scruffy, but we were reasonably happy with that given we were three goals to the good.

“Rikki hit the bar from distance but there wasn’t a huge amount of goalmouth action from either side and for us it was just a case of managing the game.

“In the latter stages we did take our foot off the gas and if Oldland had scored earlier we may have been in trouble as we lowered our intensity to a point where we may not have found it again, so it’s important we learn from that.”

SALTASH UNITED: Tyler Coombes, Tom Badcott, Alfie Wotton, Ben Goulty, Hayden Greening (Eli Evans, 79), Finley Wilkes, Kieran O’Melia, Tom Huyton (Tom Payne, 72), Rikki Shepherd (Freddy Tolcher, 89), Jack Wood, Joe Preece (Deacon Thomson, 61). Sub not used: Aaron Goulty.

By David Sillifant

TORPOINT Athletic will look to continue their superb run of form in 2025 when they visit bottom side Welton Rovers on Saturday in the Western League Premier Division.

The Point, who have picked up 20 points from a possible 27 since the turn of the year, won 5-0 at Paulton Rovers in their last outing on March 1.

Joint boss Ryan Fice said: “We're in a good moment so we would have liked to playing, but it's been relentless this season so a weekend off wasn't the worst thing for us.

“All we can continue to do is train hard and prepare to go up to Welton where we’ll expect a tough game.”