IT was a real rollercoaster of a season for Liskeard Athletic after their promotion as Division One West champions, but one that they could ultimately be pretty pleased with.
A ninth-place finish in the final Premier West table was a good reflection of their campaign, which was hit by injuries and unavailability problems, making it very difficult to select a settled side.
It was a very good start and end to the league campaign for the Blues, but the bit in the middle saw them plummet worryingly down the table.
Pre-season saw them lift the Charity Bowl with a 4-1 victory over Stoke Gabriel – bereft of the manager and players who had won the Division One East title in 2018-19 – at Elburton Villa’s Haye Road ground.
But if they had any doubts playing at a higher level was going to be tough, they were firmly removed by a 6-1 opening-day thrashing at St Austell.
However, there was no lasting damage to their confidence from that setback as they won four of their next five league games and drew the other, scoring 19 goals in the process, with young striker James Lorenz picking up from where he had left off the previous season after his shortlived summer move to Truro City.
That sequence included a stunning 2-1 victory at Helston Athletic on the second Saturday of the season, which proved to be the only league defeat the West Cornwall Blues would suffer all season.
But it was the other end of the field that was causing concern to joint managers Martin Hodge and Richard Woods.
Sixteen goals shipped in those six matches, plus another three in their FA Vase exit at Bovey Tracey, became 39 in 12 after a miserable September saw them suffer five straight defeats and withdraw from the Cornwall Charity Cup.
They bounced back with three league wins on the bounce but then embarked on another disappointing run of form, with a 4-1 loss at Callington Town a real low point.
Eight successive league defeats were only broken up by a couple of Cornwall Senior Cup victories over lower-league opposition which saw them reach the quarter-finals of the competition. Their interest in that came to an end with a 2-0 defeat at Millbrook, who had also knocked them out of the League Cup, but despite a season-ending injury to Lorenz, they finished brightly with three straight wins and hopes for a strong finale before lockdown put an end to proceedings.
Looking back on the campaign, Hodge said: ‘It is a big step-up from the league below and we found that, but as the season went on we got better, and we finished well.
‘We were just starting to find our feet at this level and then the season ended, but the lads have now got 12 months’ under their belt in this league, so hopefully this year we can kick on a bit. We beat Helston in our third game of the season, which was nice.’
He added: ‘There are going to be some good teams this year, and it should be a good league, and competitive.
‘The likes of Bodmin, St Blazey and Saltash are always there fighting it out, and I don’t think it will be any different this season, and then you will get one or two surprises, as you always get, but we are looking forward to it.’
by Nigel Walrond