ST Austell made light of their low league position with a deserved win in this tense Cornish derby to dent injury ravaged Camborne’s promotion prospects.

In front of a good sized crowd at Tregorrick, this was very much the proverbial game of two halves with Town on top but failing to capitalise before the interval.

The Saints then went onto dominate the second period and crucially took their chances the better against their opponents, who would end the match with 14 men.

Half a dozen changes were forced upon Camborne from the line-up which had defeated Wells.

Among these were Malcolm Hearn who was restored at prop and stalwart Martin Woolcock came into the back row.

The home side faced the wind and the slope in an opening half which saw the Cherry & Whites opening strongly without putting points on the board.

From their first real attack, the hosts were awarded a penalty for scrum-half Andy Ashwin to fire between the posts.

St Austell were on the wrong end of the penalty count for the remainder of the opening period but though lock James Goldsworthy and number eight Roberts made a number of line breaks, Camborne could not bag the try they were chasing.

Goldsworthy, wing James Briant and centre Richard Kevern all went very close to scoring before last ditch home interventions.

With home number eight Adam Kellow in the sin-bin, the visitors levelled at 3-3 when David Mankee kicked over a 20m penalty on 35 minutes.

Coming out fired up for the second half, the Saints were quickly on top territorially and took a 54th minute lead.

A penalty was punted to the corner by Ashwin to set up the catch and drive from where industrious flanker Ian Venner was driven over.

Trailling 8-3 the visitors’ cause was then not helped on the hour when lock Ben Kemp received a straight red card.

Strong running flanker Paul Winterbottom twice went close to a try for the hosts and Hearn made a number of telling tackles.

But the Saints looked to have put the game safe inside the last ten minutes working space for replacement full-back Dan Pearce to scorch over.

Down but not out, Camborne countered late on with a 40m penalty from fly-half Mankee bagged a losing bonus point and on the final whistle St Austell had to halt a series of drives to hold on to secure the spoils.

CAMBORNE: 15 Thirlby, 14 Floyd, 13 Kevern, 12 Kenward (c), 11 Briant, 10 Mankee, 9 Pascoe; 1 Hearn, 2 Bartle, 3 Milliner, 4 Goldsworthy, 5 Kemp, 6 Stanleick, 7 Woolcock, 8 Roberts.

REPS: Sheers, Lewarne, Dickson.

PENS: Mankee 2

RED CARD: Kemp (60).