WESTERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION

Newquay 3 Torpoint Athletic 0

NEWQUAY banished the memory of an opening day defeat at Clevedon with a rip-roaring performance on the way to a comprehensive victory over Torpoint Athletic at Mount Wise on Wednesday night.

A goal of high quality from Louis Price after 25 minutes set them on their way and when Callam McOnie doubled the lead eight minutes later they were in the driving seat.

An out of sorts Torpoint did improve in the second half but an inspired display of goalkeeping by Shaun Semmens kept them out and preserved a deserved clean sheet.

Young striker Allam Ahmed put the icing on the cake for the Peppermints with a third goal 15 minutes from time, a cool and composed finish from the teenager.

Newquay AFC team picture.
Newquay responded in style from their opening day defeat at Clevedon Town with three points at Mount Wise over Cornish rivals Torpoint Athletic.

Newquay boss Shaun Middleton said: “We had really good energy and aggression in our play and looked dangerous, so really happy with our performance.

“It was our first home game and we wanted to put in a good display and we certainly did that.

“We move on to another tough game against Bridgwater and we’ll have to be at our best again.”

Torpoint manager Dean Cardew said: “We were well beaten by a very good Newquay team. The frustrating thing from my point of view is that as good as we were on Saturday we were poor last night.

“I don’t want to take any credit away from Newquay as they were far better than us and deserved their win, but when you offer no work-rate or fight you don’t deserve to win any football match, so we got our just desserts.”

Torpoint started the game brightly and they came desperately close to taking a 19th minute lead with Gary Hird looking certain to score from close range, but Semmens somehow kept the ball out with a brilliant save.

Al Ahmed and Louis Price.
Louis Price (right) celebrates the opening goal of the night with Allam Ahmed who later got on the scoresheet himself.

Price’s goal six minutes later hit the visitors hard. Receiving the ball on the left edge of the penalty area, the striker turned brilliantly past a defender before curling a superb shot into the far corner of the net.

It was a quality finish which wouldn’t have looked out of place at a higher level of football.

Newquay almost doubled their lead a minute later when Ahmed won possession in the Torpoint penalty area and rolled the ball across the face of an open goal, but McOnie arrived just too late to finish.

But McOnie made no mistake in the 33rd minute when he waited for a cross to drop and fired in a superb left foot drive to make it 2-0.

Newquay went on to create several more opportunities before the break, but the run of the ball didn’t quite go for them.

Torpoint’s best chance came in the 42nd minute when Harry Probyn curled a right foot shot just over the bar.

The visitors showed some improvement in the early stages of the second half and a spectacular scissor-kick from Joe Rapson flew inches wide midway through the half.

They came even closer in the 71st minute when Semmens performed heroics with three saves in a matter of seconds to deny Dave Barker and then Tom Hensman, twice, near the post.

Newquay rubbed salt into Torpoint’s wounds five minutes later by scoring a third goal as Ahmed raced clear of the visitors’ defence, rounded keeper James Morley and coolly slotted the ball into the empty net.

NEWQUAY: Shaun Semmens; Jamie Edlin, Harry Downing (capt), Jacob Kevern (Sam Fearon, 76), Tom Moxham; Connor Paine, Tom Shepherd. Matt Searle (Ross Fallens, 81), Callam McOnie (Jacob Grange, 64), Allam Ahmed (Ben Shaw, 90+1), Louis Price (Alex Cole, 85).

TORPOINT ATHLETIC: James Morley; Dave Barker, Sam Hepworth, Owen Haslam (Josh Jansen, 81), Callum O’Brien, Elliott Crawford (capt), Tom Payne (Tom Hensman, 57), Sam Pearson, Harry Probyn (James Rowe, 57), Joe Rapson (Sam Morgan, 81), Gary Hird (Liam Higgins, 57).

Men-of-the-match: Newquay – Shaun Semmens; Torpoint Athletic – Sam Pearson.