ALTHOUGH Falmouth Town are enjoying a good run of form at the moment, few may have predicted just how easy their victory over Liskeard Athletic was on Saturday.

Despite going behind via an excellent strike from Jack Podmore, Town proceeded to control much of the remaining 75 minutes, with Jack Bowyer continuing his sensational form in front of goal with another hat-trick.

Luke Barner netted his first for the club, Luke Brabyn weighed in with a fine finish and Matt Buchan notched his eighth of the season as Town strolled to a victory that could so easily have been even greater.

Town are rampant

It has been a slower start to the season than Town would have liked, with Andrew Westgarth's side dropping points at St Dennis and Godolphin Atlantic and losing to in-form St Austell and Helston Athletic, but they have gained a head of steam in recent weeks and were fully firing on Saturday.

They went a goal down but victory looked on the cards as soon as Bowyer equalised midway through the first half. Town controlled the game and were unlucky to only be 3-1 up at the interval, with Bowyer firing one shot inches wide and having another blocked by team-mate Buchan, while Martyn Duff had a goal questionably ruled out for offside.

The barrage continued in the second half, with Buchan turning two crosses wide, having one saved by Ollie Chenoweth and one goal ruled out for offside.

Yes, Liskeard have struggled of late and are on a poor run, but they are still a competitive side and Town were running riot for large spells.

Falmouth have been desperately unlucky so far this season with injury and unavailability affecting most of their squad. Town had nine players unavailable at one point, and they were still missing a handful on Saturday.

With a performance like Saturday's, imagine what they could do with a full squad again.

Barner's on fire

Luke Barner deservedly earned the club's man-of-the-match award, with the former University of Exeter player having a fantastic game on the right flank.

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He excelled in the unfamiliar right-back position, deputising for the unavailable David Blizzard, and had the engine to regularly go forward and support right-winger Luke Brabyn.

He consistently skinned the Liskeard left-back and sent in several crosses, which on another day would have seen two or three goals added to the tally.

His hard work saw him score a deserved first goal for the club in the first half, when he made space to receive a pass from Bowyer inside the box, before taking a touch and finding the top corner.

I said after his debut in the first pre-season game against Peterborough United that he could potentially be one of the signings of the summer, and I fully stand by that following his performance on Saturday.

Blizzard may find it difficult to get back in the team when he returns next week...

Toby steps in

Toby Clark made his second appearance for Town on Saturday, almost 16 years to the day since making his first.

The 38-year-old defender had hung up his boots last season, with his final appearance for Saltash United coming in their 2-1 defeat to Town at Bickland Park in December 2018, but he stepped into the team after answering an SOS call from Andrew Westgarth and put in a good performance alongside captain Joe Cooper.

He made an important intervention to thwart Liskeard striker James Lorenz as he worked his way into the Falmouth box, made a crucial double challenge to stop a promising counter attack, and was generally defensively sound.

He almost capped off his fine guest appearance with a sensational overhead kick in the second half, but sadly for him and the F-Troop behind the goal, it was not to be.

Brilliant Bickland Boys

A casual look back at the game on Saturday evening alerted me to a peculiar statistic: all six goals were scored by players whose surnames began with B.

This is not especially surprising when you consider that Jack Bowyer, Luke Barner, Luke Brabyn, Matt Buchan, David Broglino, David Blizzard are all among Town's ranks, but an interesting nugget nonethless.

In fact, their last nine goals have been scored by 'B' players, with Bowyer also scoring two and Buchan netting one in Town's 3-1 win at Porthleven on Tuesday night.

And when you look at it over the whole season, 'B' players have scored 23 of Falmouth's 33 goals, meaning a fraction under 70 per cent of Town's goals have been scored by a player beginning with B.

How long until goalkeeper Ryan Barnes adds his name to the list, I wonder?

Next up

There will be a feeling of déjà vu on Tuesday night when the same two teams meet at the same ground for the second time in three days, as they do battle under the Bickland Park lights in the Cornwall Charity Cup.

I am sure Andrew Westgarth will have his team fired up for the tie, given his penchant for a cup competition and with both sides just four wins away from glory.

Westgarth warned about the risks of playing a team so soon after beating them prior to Saturday's game, so I am sure he will have his players' minds focused for the tie.