PORTHLEVEN co-manager Graham Blake was pleased with his side’s reaction to a poor first half in their 3-2 win at home to Sticker on Saturday.

Tom Tallis and Derrick Lucas had put the Sticky two goals up inside 20 minutes before a goal in either half from Joe Wright levelled the scores, with Kyle Fraser firing home the winner with three minutes left of the 90.

The win sees Porthleven rise to eighth in the South West Peninsula League Premier West.

Port had to dig deep to record their third win in succession after falling two goals behind after just 20 minutes, with sloppiness in possession leading to both goals and documenting a disappointing first half for the home side.

“It’s a first half to forget, I don’t think I want to think about it again,” Blake said. “I don’t even think they played well, I just think we kept giving the ball away and that was our downfall.

“They deserved to be 2-0 up from our mistakes to be honest and after a harsh team talk at half time they came out a different side and I’m pleased with their reaction.”

He added: “I think we were sluggish. We kept giving the ball away and they got the momentum from it. They get the two goals and their tails are going to be up. I always felt we were in the game, we just needed to start passing it forward and moving it quicker, and second half we did that.”

The match was the first of seven home games for Porthleven between now and the end of March, with the Fishermen one of several teams about to embark on a hectic schedule of fixtures to make up for a raft of postponements earlier in the season.

Blake said: “Fingers crossed now that we have no more rain and we can get some games in because we’ve got lots to come, I think some weeks we’re playing Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. But it is what it is, we’ve got a second team, so we’ve got to utilise the squad we’ve got.”

The victory was Port’s third in succession as the Fishermen kept their upturn in form going, following victories over Callington Town and Camelford, and Blake stressed the importance of keeping that run going.

“A big word I keep saying to the lads is momentum,” Blake said. “We’ve got three on the bounce and we’ve got loads of games to come up. We play Mousehole on Wednesday night and we needed something today just to go into that with some sort of positivity. We’ll have to play a bit better than we did first half, but fingers crossed we turn up and give them a game.”