Gilbert hails Liskeard after thrashing neighbours Torpoint

LISKEARD Athletic moved up to the heady heights of third place in the table after their emphatic victory over local rivals Torpoint at Lux Park on Tuesday night.

In front of a crowd of 232, the Blues started well with a Toby Haley goal after two minutes and doubled their lead on the half-hour with a Bailey Mabin penalty.

James Lorenz made it 3-0 in the 65th minute before Harry Probyn rubbed salt into Torpoint’s wounds by rounding off the scoring against the club who let him go last month.

That’s two wins and two clean sheets in a row from Liskeard, who have quickly shrugged off a calamitous and ill-disciplined 4-3 defeat at Ivybridge last midweek after they led 3-0.

Joint manager Darren Gilbert said: “It was our most complete performance for a long time and when you consider the players we were without – Matty (Andrew), Max (Gilbert), Calum (Merrin) and George Marris – it’s a very good result.

“Ben Cross came back into the side after quite a long time out and was magnificent. He organised the midfield, talked to the players throughout and emerged as our man-of-the-match.

“From front to back we were outstanding. Mabes was brilliant – I think he’s scored seven in four games now – and George Newton was fantastic alongside him. George had a few games early season when he didn’t really turn up, but now he looks to be returning to the form we know he can produce.

“We were very good all over the pitch, we ran riot really and it could have been more.

“Don’t get me wrong, Torpoint are still a very good side and Dean (Cardew) and Ryan (Fice) are doing a great job – but we were just too good last night.”

Gilbert also described it as one of the team’s most disciplined performances and revealed: “I’ve had a chat in the dressing room with every player and told them our discipline must be better.

“You’re always going to have players sent-off for tackles, but what’s not acceptable is lashing out in retaliation or arguing with referees.

“That applies to me and Gambs (Wayne Gamble, joint manager) too. We shouldn’t have got ourselves booked at Ivybridge; we are the ones who have to set the example as the managers. Hopefully what happened at Ivybridge will have done us some good. Our two performances and results since then suggest that’s the case.”

Liskeard travel to bottom club Wellington on Saturday knowing that victory would put them a point behind leaders Bridgwater, who are involved in FA Vase action against second-placed Saltash.

For Torpoint, this was their fifth league defeat of the season, having lost only four throughout last season on the way to finishing runners-up.

LISKEARD ATHLETIC: Ollie Chenoweth; Ben Cross, Ben Collins, Harry Jeffery (Jordan Powell, 74), Josh McCabe (capt), Harvey Mullis, Toby Haley (Scott Sanders, 73), James Lorenz (Kai Gilbert, 74), George Newton, Bailey Mabin, Harry Probyn. Sub not used: Josh Robins.

Goals: Toby Haley (2 minutes), Bailey Mabin (31 pen), James Lorenz (65), Harry Probyn (71).

Yellow card: Harry Jeffery (19).

TORPOINT ATHLETIC: Ty Rowe; Dave Barker, Tom Payne (Ryan Downing, 53), Owen Haslam, Callum O’Brien, Elliott Crawford (capt), James Rowe (Darren Hicks, 75), Sam Pearson, Lewis Flowers (Sam Hepworth, 47), Joe Rapson (Sam Morgan, 75), Callum Martindale.

Referee: Will Bennett.

Attendance: 232.

Liskeard Athletic man-of-the-match: Ben Cross.