Falmouth Town 4, Helston Athletic 1

MATT Buchan scored a hat-trick as Falmouth Town put local rivals Helston Athletic to the sword in the Dave Gardner Memorial Tournament on Wednesday night.

Jordan Annear scored a penalty late in the first half only for Phil Cattran to equalise five minutes later, before Buchan struck three times against his former club in the second half to give Falmouth the victory.

Buchan has now scored six goals in two Dave Gardner matches after he also scored a hat-trick in Town's 3-2 win at Penzance last Wednesday.

Cattran came very close to giving the Blues the lead on 35 minutes when his shot from 20 yards looked destined for the bottom left corner, but Falmouth goalkeeper Adam Dower did well to get a strong hand to it.

Annear, playing his first game for Town since making two appearances for Southern League side Tiverton Town last month, scored the opening goal from the penalty spot three minutes later after he was hauled down in the area.

But Town's lead lasted just five minutes before Cattran got on the end of Tyler Cooke's long ball, taking a touch before firing past Dower from inside the box.

Town had a golden chance to go into the break in front with James Ward's header from Tim Nixon's corner being blocked on the line in the final action of the half.

But they didn't have to wait much longer before they did score again, with Buchan capitalising on a fortunate bounce of the ball before placing it past Helston's Barrie Wyatt within two minutes of the restart.

Buchan doubled both his personal tally and his side's lead on the hour with a goal made by Nixon, who danced his way around the edge of the box before slipping the ball in for Buchan to find the corner.

Tyler Oliver came close for the visitors with an audacious volley a few minutes later, before his weak pass allowed Annear to race in on goal before being brought down by Wyatt in the box. Buchan stepped forward this time to claim his hat-trick.

Substitute Martyn Duff had a superb chance to make it five shortly after when David Blizzard's cross evaded everyone bar the Falmouth man at the near post, but he couldn't divert it past Wyatt.

Falmouth now head into the Dave Gardner Finals Day at Porthleven's Gala Parc on Saturday needing only one point from their game against the Fishermen to claim this year's title.

Falmouth: A Dower, D Blizzard, O Moody, R Martt, J Cooper, J Ward, L Brabyn, J Webber, M Buchan, J Annear, T Nixon. Subs: A Williams, A Westgarth, J McIlroy, M Duff, T Annear.

Helston: B Wyatt, K Davies, G Roberts, R Beattie, R Holland, T Oliver, K Marks, L Roberts, P Cattran, A Williams, L Tripconey. Subs: A Wharton, S Jenkin, S Thomas, L Tonkin, T Cooke, H Howlett.

  • Both teams play their final match of the Dave Gardner Memorial Tournament at Porthleven this Saturday. Helston face Penzance at 2pm before Falmouth take on Porthleven at 5pm.