IT was more a case of who wasn’t there than who was for St Blazey as they suffered one of their heaviest defeats of the season at the Winterfield Stadium on Saturday.

The Green & Blacks were down to the bare bones because of injuries and unavailabilities – and ended up having to send on substitute goalkeeper Mac Dewsnap as an outfield player for the last 10 minutes.

All of which left manager Mark Carter frustrated at the lack of numbers available to make the 300-mile round trip.

Carter said: “I can’t say anything negative about yesterday despite the result on paper looking bad. The effort and the commitment shown from the lads available was huge.

“On the bigger picture I’m disappointed and frustrated with the squad situation. I understand injuries and suspensions are part and parcel of football.

“But the quantity of players and quality of players unavailable twinned with the frequency, is really starting to hurt us.

“Yesterday once again we were missing more than eight players. You can’t enter Step 5 games missing half of your squad.

“It’s something I’m going to have to go away and reassess. We’ve proven we are in the same level of Paulton and Barnstaple, along side other teams at the top. We’re just letting ourselves down as a group.”

In atrocious wet conditions, Blazey were 1-0 down after only five minutes to a Kailan Gould strike but equalised with a Haiden Chapman penalty in the 18th minute.

Within five minutes, though, Paulton were awarded a penalty of their own and Kitan Jaiyeoba scored the first of his three goals to restore the home side’s lead.

Blazey were still in the game at half-time and were looking for a strong start to the second half but went 3-1 down three minutes in as Jaiyeoba pounced for his second goal.

Chris Peck added the home side’s fourth goal on the hour and Jaiyeoba completed his hat-trick six minutes later to make it 5-1.

St Blazey: K Moore, W Tinsley, T Hensman, C Hambly (R Reynolds 33), T Strike, T Cavanagh, M Perry (H Smith 64), S Clifton, H Chapman (M Dewsnap 80), K Dyson, H Conroy.

Goal: H Chapman (18, pen).

Yellow cards: C Hambly (32), S Clifton (40), K Moore (50).

Man of the Match: Sam Clifton.