TWO goals from Ryan Fice saw Falmouth Town overcome a spirited Dartmouth at a rain-soaked Bickland Park on Saturday.

It was one of only five games to get the go-ahead in the Carlsberg South West Peninsula League premier division - a decision which must have pleased manager Alan Carey who before the match had admitted that postponements were disrupting his inform side’s march up the table.

Carey was even more delighted two minutes into the game when Fice accurately placed a shot into the bottom corner of Nathan Murphy’s goal, following a smart back-heel from Nigel Thwaites, to give Town a 1-0 lead.

Dartmouth, who came to Bickland Park with a physical approach, were lucky to have eleven players left on the pitch five minutes in, when Dan Griffiths retaliated to a heavy challenge from Town’s Jimmy Alexander. In the end it was only the Town midfielder who received a caution.

Thwaites was next to go close firing wide from 30 yards out when well placed. Josh Sims then thought he had made it 2-0 on eight minutes, but his curling shot into the bottom right hand corner was ruled out for offside.

Dartmouth started to get a foot-hold in the game midway through the half. Richie Hammet was first to go close but his cross from the right, which looped over Jason Chapman in the Town goal, was expertly pushed away by the keeper at the back post.

Dartmouth’s best chance of the half fell to striker Tom Comyn who was played through on goal by a neat flick-on. However, Chapman was alert enough to rush off his line and produced an excellent stop at the feet of the forward.

Three minutes later Ben Stidwell swung over a near perfect right-wing cross from which Sims was unlucky to see his header go just wide of the post.

Falmouth won a corner in the 26th minute and Tom Barwell’s kick found Sean Flynn who headed into the path of Fice whose goalbound header was caught by Murphy just in front of the goal line.

Town were then given an excellent chance to double their lead as they counter-attacked from a Dartmouth corner. Richard Kellow played an excellent cross-field ball out of defence, which Fice picked up on the right. He then cut inside the fullback before firing a low shot which was blocked by the arm of a Dartmouth defender.

Josh Sims stepped up to take the penalty, but hit his effort straight Murphy who blocked with his right arm. Fortunately the ball fell back to Sims but he then miss-kicked a volley and the ball flashed past the right-hand post.

The second half continued to see both sides evenly matched. Dartmouth physical approach suited the conditions and they had the better of the midfield play. However, they lacked quality in the final third and against a defence with the second best record in the league they rarely looked like scoring.

After 47 minutes, a good move forward for Falmouth ended with Thwaites shooting wide from 10 yards. Darts upped their game five minutes in and a dangerous cross from the right saw their forwards being penalised for a foul on Chapman.

In the 63rd minute both teams made a change and for Falmouth it was Rob Carey who came on for Sims.

Town looked as though they would be made to pay for the earlier penalty miss when on 82 minutes Comyn ran through on goal, but Chapman did well to gather the ball at his feet once more.

Two minutes later, Carey received a good ball from Dan Green and took it on a couple of paces before hitting a shot that deflected wide after hitting a defender on the back.

Three minutes from time a Dartmouth move on the right resulted in Comyn’s header looping over Chapman but, fortunately for Town, Stidwell was alert to this danger and managed to clear the ball off the line.

A minute later Thwaites got the ball out wide on the left and took it past a defender before cutting into the area and knocking it back into the path of Fice who smashed the ball home much to the relief of the home players and supporters.

Falmouth travel to struggling Holsworthy on Saturday with a 3pm kick off.