FALMOUTH Town started this match with great purpose against a team who were flying high in leading the Wessex Premier League, having won their last 12 games prior to a loss on Tuesday night with a weakened team in their league cup.

Falmouth were without Jack Webber, who is still recovering from injury, and Ollie Walker who disappointingly for him had to return to London at short notice.

Inside the first minute, Town were ahead. The ball broke down in the midfield and a long ball forward caught the Moneyfields defence out. It came down to a foot race between Alex Wharton and the Moneyfields right back.

Wharton showed great pace and strength as he shrugged off the fullback and shot across the keeper, finding the far corner of the goal. A great start for Town who many felt were the underdogs in this tie.

Three minutes later, Town had the visitor’s defence under pressure again. After some good defending, the ball broke to Jared Sims who couldn’t quite hit the target. A further three minutes had elapsed and Town went further ahead. Cam Hutchison took a corner from the left and Bradley Leivers rose the highest to nod the ball past Dylan Kramer in the Moneyfields goal.

Falmouth were creating havoc for the Moneyfields back-line with the pace of Luke Brabyn and Alex Wharton running on to early long balls over the top. Moneyfields continued to play a high line, despite the defence getting turned time and again.

All looked good for the home side as Moneyfields could not get any sustained possession and when they did, good pressing from the Town midfield forced lots of errors, the ball being passed into touch on several occasions. Andreas Calejas-Stayne notably getting through his usual high quota of work, ably assisted by Jared Simms who had one of his best games, hardly giving the ball away at all throughout the 90 minutes.

On 22 minutes, Falmouth won another corner down the left. Again Cam Hutchinson delivered the ball into the area and it somehow evaded the defenders at the near post. Arriving unexpectedly at the goal-line, Falmouth’s FA Vase top scorer Luke Brabyn tapped the ball into the net from 1 yard out to make it 3-0.

One minute later and the game changed in an instant. In an off-the-ball incident, there was a tussle between Luke Barner and the influential Moneyfields centre-back Jack Lee. Lee reacted forcibly, squaring up to Barner and continuing to remonstrate with the referee. The game was stopped and the linesman was consulted.

Unbelievably for the Town faithful, a red card was shown to Barner and Town were down to 10 men. Immediately, Town struggled to keep the ball and resorted to clearing the ball whenever possible. Moneyfields had increased possession but were still unable to create anything meaningful and Falmouth crucially were able to get to half-time with their 3-nil lead intact.

There were no changes to personnel at half-time and the 2nd half continued as the first ended with Falmouth clearing their lines and struggling to get out of their own half. However, that all changed on 55 minutes when another long ball over the top resulted in another foot race, this time between Luke Brabyn and Moneyfields captain Tom Jeffes.

Brabyn ran across the defender and a tangle of legs resulted in Brabyn going down in the area. The referee immediately reached for his back pocket and it was 10 v. 10 again and a penalty for Falmouth. This was the chance to finish the tie off but Kramer was equal to Brabyn’s effort and the score remained at 3-0.

Moneyfields made some substitutions and introduced a bit more pace, but Town’s defence were resolute and Coxhead had only one save to make, deep into injury time when he got down well to stop a well-struck goal bound effort from just inside the box.

After a good seven minutes of time added on, the final whistle was sounded and Falmouth recorded another memorable home victory in the Vase, continuing their excellent record over recent years. In great scenes, the F-Troop at the Packet End gave the team a rapturous send-off to the strains of “Town All Over” and “Sweet Falmouth Town.”

Falmouth have since been drawn against Barnstaple Town in the third Round of the FA Vase and will be concentrating on their next league game away to Street on Saturday, November 18.