Falmouth 4, Exe III 1

TOP beat bottom as league leaders Falmouth triumphed over strugglers Exe III to tighten their grip on the South Division title on Saturday, writes Matt Friday.

After a frustrating opening half-hour, the floodgates eventually opened for Clare Hudson (2), Tatum Godwin and Vic Pryor all to score and extend Falmouth’s winning run to 13 games.

Falmouth began as you would expect the runaway leaders to, with Hudson getting a shot away inside the first minute before Natalie Oliver and Rachael Tatlow both fired wide shortly after.

However, Exe proved to be stronger opposition than the league table suggested, and twice shot wide either side of some good defending from Megan Cookson to stop another attack.

But it was Falmouth who broke the deadlock on 27 minutes. Hudson had one shot blocked, but made amends moments later by finishing into the bottom corner to give Falmouth the lead.

Falmouth took their slender lead into half-time but doubled it six minutes into the second half, when Godwin carried the ball into the circle and drove into the bottom left corner.

The home side put the game out of sight on 49 minutes when Hudson saw her initial shot blocked, but scored at the second attempt from close range.

Three became four on the hour when Hudson, searching for a hat-trick, again had a shot saved but Pryor was on hand to score the rebound.

Megan Langley scored a deserved consolation for Exe five minutes from time, but the match as a contest was over long before then.

Falmouth: Amie Cadwell, Megan Cookson, Laura Heather, Danyelle Fry, Nat Oliver, Nic Hinton, Tatum Godwin, Clare Hudson, Alice Mathias, Vic Pryor, Rachael Tatlow.

The first team travel to Tiverton to play White Eagles on Saturday.

Mannamead 4 : 0 Falmouth ll

Falmouth travelled to Plymouth without some regular members of the squad due to first team call up, injury and unavailability. Mannamead started very strongly as Falmouth took time to settle and took the lead after five minutes of attacking play. They quickly doubled their lead as the visitors struggled to find their form and clear the dangerous attacks. Falmouth gradually worked their way into the game and managed to start putting some good passes together. Mannamead were awarded a disputed penalty corner from which they scored their third goal. Rachel Medd was quickly out to block the shot but the ball fell just in front of a Mannamead attacker who was able to score in the top corner. The home team scored again just before half time to give them a 4-0 advantage at the interval.

In the second half Falmouth were a different team, showed great spirit and were unlucky not to score. A few positional changes with Player of the Match, Evie Roberts moving to centre back, Molly Phillips to left back and Franny Rowe to mid-field gave the team a more solid defence and more attacking options. Suzanne Bull caused the home defence problems as she made good runs down the right wing and Robyn Ivall put in a good performance in mid-field in her first senior match. Although Falmouth had more of the possession in the second half they were unable to capitalise on their chances.

Falmouth ll: June Moore, Molly Phillips, Evie Roberts, Lizzie Shannon, Rachel Medd, Franny Rowe, Katie Humphreys, Robyn Ivall, Hep Wills, Gemma Taylor, Suzanne Bull

On Saturday Falmouth travel to Tiverton to play White Eagles at 12.30pm while Falmouth ll play Penzance at Penryn College at 10.30am.