Late first half wobble costs Newquay dear at Clevedon

NEWQUAY’S season got off to a losing start in North Somerset as title-hopefuls Clevedon Town won it with two late first half goals.

The Seasiders reached the play-offs last term, a feat the Peppermints narrowly missed out on, but the Cornishmen headed up the M5 in confident mood following a fine summer of recruitment and pre-season results.

Forced to play against the wind in the first half, Newquay’s debutant keeper Shaun Semmens twice was forced into action on 11 minutes, pushing Josh Bennett’s shot wide before tipping Jay Murray’s curler over.

For long spells the hosts were left frustrated, while Newquay got themselves into a couple of promising positions themselves on the counter, only to not quite make the right decision.

But just as it looked like they’d get through to the break unscathed, two lapses from long throws cost them dear.

The first arrived on 40 minutes as Laurent Davis-Wilson laid the ball back to the edge of the box where Henry Westlake drove a shot into the bottom corner.

Two minutes later, another missile into the danger zone wasn’t dealt with as it found its way in via a visiting defender.

Newquay had already lost debutant Tim Nixon to a hamstring injury on the half-hour mark, and at half-time lost influential frontman Louis Price to an ankle problem as they were replaced by summer signing Connor Paine and Jack Bray-Evans respectively.

The second became a far more open contest as although the visitors were indebted to several good saves from Semmens, they created three good chances at the other end.

Bray-Evans twice could have done better with headers from crosses from the right, both times from eight yards forcing James Dunn into decent saves, while attacker Alex Cole fired narrowly wide from a similar distance when well-placed.

Boss Shaun Middleton tried to take the positives, saying: “We knew it’d be tough against a very good team, but I was more disappointed with the performance than the result as we didn’t play anywhere near what we’re capable of as a team.

“That said, we did create a few chances in the second half and on another day it could easily have been 3-3 or 4-4, although Shaun was brilliant for us and kept us in it.

“But the injuries didn’t help us, so we’ll move onto Wednesday night (7.30pm) at home to another really good side in this league in Torpoint.”

Torpoint narrowly missed out on promotion last term, and with Middleton likely to have to assess several members of his squad before putting together his squad, he knows it won’t be easy.

He said: “It’s another tough game against one of the better sides in the division, but as we know it’s a relentless division in terms of the schedule and quality of teams we face, so you’ve just got to get on with it.

“Last year they twice beat us by the odd goal, so hopefully we can put that right and get our first win of the season.”

NEWQUAY: Shaun Semmens; Jamie Edlin (Jacob Kevern), Harry Downing (capt), Cam Turner, Tom Moxham; Matt Searle, Ross Fallens (Al Ahmed), Tim Nixon (Connor Paine); Jacob Grange, Louis Price (Jack Bray-Evans), Callam Maconie (Alex Cole).

Peppermints’ man-of-the-match: Shaun Semmens.