PREMIER DIVISION Plymouth Parkway 3 Liskeard Athletic 1 THIS defeat at a bright Bolitho Park against a Parkway side who themselves were searching for some form, makes it two losses in their last two games for Liskeard. Before the match had even started, the Blues were in a degree of chaos, due to a clash of colours, and this seemed to sum up their first half. The Blues turned up in blue shirts, with yellow shorts and socks, while Parkway were resplendent in yellow shirts with blue flashing, blue shorts and yellow socks. Once on the pitch, the referee then asked both sides to swap shirts to try and alleviate the obvious confusion, but when this did not work, Liskeard turned to their all-yellow second-strip shirts. The match eventually began with both sides wearing Liskeard strips, the Blues sporting all yellow and Parkway in all blue. The confusion was not helped by the Liskeard change in formation, which saw player-manager Lee Harvey at centre half, and understandably, spectators and players alike took time to adjust. Parkway were first into their stride and took the lead against a disjointed-looking Blues in the 10th minute, with Martyn Sullivan firing home a Ross Coombes' cross at the back post. Things failed to improve for the visitors, who found themselves two goals behind in the 38th minute as a lucky break from a Jon Morris tackle found Andy Sargent in acres of space, and his cross was put through his own goal by the returning Harry Richardson. It could have been even worse before half-time as Parkway missed several chances and found Liskeard goalkeeper Simon Zinn in good form. Liskeard re-organised after the break, with Harvey going up front and Ben Wood returning to his normal wide position, but the damage had been done. Although the Blues looked much better, Parkway always looked to have an extra gear if they needed it, and proved their point when Mark Berry burst through, rounded Zinn, and scored in the 85th minute. Though Chris Wright netted with two minutes to go, and Harvey headed against the top of the home crossbar in stoppage time, in truth, this was not one of Liskeard's better days. 'We tried to adjust things to adapt to Parkway's strengths and changed it at half-time when things weren't working,' said Harvey. 'We got better as the second half went on, but their second goal was a killer. It looked offside but there was no flag, and once they got a breakaway third goal we ran out of time really.' Buckland Athletic 0 St Blazey 2 ST BLAZEY took advantage of other teams' involvement in the Cornwall Senior Cup to close the gap on those at the top of the table with this comfortable win at Homer's Heath. Buckland might not have won in eight games, but the job still had to be done by the Green and Blacks, and the victory now moves the Blaise Park outfit to within four points of a top-six position. The first half was a largely uneventful affair, but St Blazey went into their half-time team talk much the happier, due to Mike Southgate's headed goal on the half hour. The second half saw the visitors in control and the lead was nearly doubled in the 50th minute when Southgate saw his instant effort rebound off a Buckland post. The woodwork again came to the home side's rescue on the hour as this time it was Mike Body's shot coming back off an upright. St Blazey continued to press forward but could not find that elusive second goal to put the game beyond doubt. Any doubts that a deserved victory might have been snatched from them were finally erased in the 70th minute when they finally scored their second and decisive goal. Matt Drummond found Southgate and the striker in turn set up Body, who ran on and finished off the move, and the match, with some aplomb to round off a good day at the office for Dave Philp's team. q q q Cornwall Senior Cup quarter-finals Saltash Utd 2 Hayle 0 THE Saltash bandwagon just keeps rolling on in four competitions, after this quarter-final win over Division One West outfit Hayle at Kimberley Stadium. The only possible blot on the impending horizon is a possible fixture pile-up as the honours assault continues in the Cornwall Senior, Charity and Throgmorton Cups, as well as the Carlsberg South West Peninsula League Premier Division title race. One of the necessities needed at this time of the season is strength in depth, which, as Ashes manager Kevin Hendy pointed out, makes this victory over Hayle particularly satisfying. 'We were missing several key players, but the rest of the squad stood up to be counted and did a professional job. This shows we are developing the strength in depth we need to compete across all competitions,' added the Ashes boss. If the Kimberley faithful were expecting an easy ride, then they were to be mistaken as Hayle, who naturally treated the game as their cup final, made it as hard as possible for their hosts. Using effort and togetherness to try and combat the Ashes' superior skill, the visitors, to a large part, succeeded. That said, skill will normally even out and this proved the case as Saltash scored two second-half goals to ease through what might have been a potential banana skin. The first half, in which the Ashes could not turn territorial superiority into goals, saw several good goalscoring chances wasted. Glen Palmer somehow blasted over early on, Mark Chapman should have done better with a 16th- minute shot and man-of-the-match Matt Purnell saw his 20th- minute header, and follow-up shot, blocked and cleared off the Hayle line by a flurry of legs and bodies. Palmer, however, was the man who finally broke the visitors' resistance with a brace of goals after the break. His first goal came in the 54th minute when he received, and controlled, a Gavin Coulton pass before thumping the ball home from 15 yards to settle home nerves. Palmer's second goal came 15 minutes from time as the burly striker rose at the near post to head home Steve Sargison's left-wing cross to break the back of the Hayle effort. 'Basically, this was a case of job done in the end and we're just happy to have got into the semi-final and to have kept our 20-match unbeaten run going,' concluded Hendy. Bodmin Town 3 Torpoint Athletic 1 TORPOINT may have lost this quarter-final at Priory Park, but they certainly left the ground with their heads held high after a pulsating tie which saw last season's South Western League champions tested to the limit. Bodmin were pushed so hard that they ended the game with nine players – such was the improvement shown by the men from The Mill from their defeat at the hands of Bodmin in an earlier league encounter this season. 'This scoreline does not reflect the game as, last time round, we got a bit of a lesson, but this time we gave them a real fright,' confirmed Torpoint assistant-manager Gary Tiffany. 'Strangely, the turning point in the game came when they had their first player sent off, when we were just one goal down, but it seemed to affect us more than them,' explained Tiffany. The game began with an early Town goal, with Paul Madden banging a loose ball home from 18 yards after Torpoint had failed to properly clear a Karl Turner free-kick. Two minutes later and the neutrals at the game might have been thinking this was going to be easy for the home side as another free-kick opened up the visiting defence. Madden swung the ball over and veteran defender Sean Flynn, hardly the tallest man on the pitch, headed comfortably home from 10 yards. Torpoint recovered well from this early onslaught, pulling a goal back on the half hour when Mike Roberts slotted home a loose ball after Town had failed to deal with a Steve Colwell cross. The match then swung to and fro until the sending off of Steve Ovens in the 65th minute, following a second yellow card, for a foul on Dominic Burn. Within 10 minutes, Bodmin had increased their lead, with Danny O'Hagan thumping a 20-yarder into the Torpoint net, and the tie was all but over as a contest. There was still enough time for a second home red card as Danny Bance received his marching orders for kicking out at Rob Eddie, but by then the match was done, despite a late, valiant effort by Torpoint. 'It's a funny old game at times, but we had a right old go at them and we can hold our heads up high and look at how far we've come from earlier in the season,' concluded Tiffany.
