Falmouth Town fell to a 4-3 defeat at home to Tavistock on Saturday, despite being gifted a 2-0 lead inside the opening ten minutes.

Falmouth also led the match 3-2 at half-time, but some defensive errors cost them as the Devon side battled back to grab a crucial victory.

Alan Carey named new signing Glen Squires in the starting line-up for the match, partnering Bradley Wills up front. It was Squires who helped open the scoring for Town, after four minutes, as he latched onto a pass down the right side of the penalty area. His pace took him away from the defence, but he was upended by Tavistock keeper Lewis Castle in the area. Referee Jimmy Stroud pointed to the spot and Mark Vercesi slotted the penalty into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

Six minutes later Squires found his way in behind the visitors’ defence again and this time he managed to work his way around Castle and walk the ball into the net.

Two-nil up inside the opening ten minutes, it looked as though Falmouth were going to run away with the match. However, despite being woeful in defence, Tavistock looked threatening going forward.

They had strong appeals for a penalty turned down after Ian Rooke went to ground under challenge from Jamie Webb, before former Falmouth Town defender Chris Menhenick curled a 30-yard free-kick into the top corner to make it 2-1.

Twenty-four minutes into the half the visitors were level as Falmouth full-back Lewis Caspell was left in a two-on-one situation as Rooke and Ben Davis pushed forward down their right. The ball was flicked into the box, but as Jason Chapman came to gather the ball he spilt it under pressure from Rooke. Davis was then left with a simple finish to lift the ball over Caspell and into the net.

Falmouth went into the break in front though as Caspell crossed a ball in from the left that Squires hit past Castle with an excellent first-time shot.
At this stage Falmouth still looked the likely winner as Squires’ movement up front was causing the visitors’ defence problems. In the second half it was a different story though. The service up to the Falmouth number nine wasn’t good enough and at the back the home defence made further errors to gift Tavistock the victory.

The first mistake came a minute into the half as a free-kick from the right was played into the box. Falmouth captain Mark Vercesi attempted to clear, but hit the ball against his own player. It dropped kindly for Tavistock’s Jamie Ahearn to thrash a shot past Chapman from the edge of the six yard box.

Further chances came Tavistock’s way as Rooke and Jarryd Kelly both hit efforts against the Falmouth crossbar. However, it was another set-piece that was to prove Falmouth’s downfall. From a corner Tavistock played the ball to the back post, where Rooke’s header was blocked on the line by Karl Turner. The rebound dropped in the six-yard box though and Rooke was quickest to react to thrash the ball home.

Falmouth never looked like grabbing an equaliser after that. Squires did put the ball in the back of the Tavistock net in injury time, but his goal was ruled out for offside.

Elsewhere in the Carlsberg SW Peninsula League premier division the results were as follows:

Bodmin             7 - 0    Bovey

Camelford          3 - 0    Cullompton

Liskeard           0 - 1    St Blazey

Liverton           1 - 1    Launceston

Penzance           0 - 4    Elburton

Torpoint           0 - 2    Newquay

Witheridge         5 - 0    Ivybridge

Friday night’s match saw Plymouth Parkway draw 3-3 at home to Saltash.