Wendron United beat Falmouth Town Reserves in League Cup

All the drama in this Walter C Parson SW Peninsula League Cup tie came in the dying minutes, with Wendron United clinching a place in the second round with a hard-earned 1-0 win against Falmouth Town Reserves.

Until the closing minutes, both sides failed to make any real impact and only managed a smattering of openings, with a penalty shootout looking the most likely way by which the two sides would be separated.

This was a typical cup tie played at a high tempo, but despite threatening to open up the defences, the moves fizzled out with a poor final ball or shots failing to hit the target.

Over the 90 minutes, neither goalkeeper was unduly troubled.

Town’s best chance came as early as the third minute when United goalkeeper Zac Telling struck his clearance straight at Evan Tresidder from close range.

The ball rebounded to Kian Thomas, who deflected the ball goalwards, only to see his effort go wide of the open goal.

A good 17th-minute run by Ryan Townson created space, but his shot was blocked by a home defence intent on quickly shutting down any opportunity.

Six minutes into added time to allow for extensive treatment to a facial injury for Will Harding, Town launched a swift break with Finn Robinson putting in Thomas, who cut in but sent a shot whistling over the bar.

Town began the second half attempting to push their game further up the pitch, but the early opening fell to United with Ryan Reeve’s shot being well blocked by Reece Carroll.

Wendron had another good effort in the 58th minute when a shot by Reeve was turned around the post for a corner after Fearn got down well to deflect the shot.

Town began to enjoy a period of sustained possession, but they were unable to find a way through a defence well marshalled by Russell May.

As the minutes ticked by, the game became stretched, and a great tackle by Levi Hilling halted a threatening United attack whilst Max Roberts was cautioned for blatantly taking out Jak Davies on the edge of the box with little cover in the home defence.

With minutes to go, Town worked their way up the flank and as Thomas went round a defender to open up the box, he was brought down, but strong pleas for a penalty fell on deaf ears as the referee gave a free kick right on the edge of the box.

Nothing came of the free kick, and United rubbed salt into the wound two minutes into injury time when a great ball from Rio Pledger down the line was picked up by Liam Andrew, who made ground and crossed for Reeve to coolly slot home the winner.

After the match, Town manager Jon Perrow said his team were disappointed to lose: "Although being a very tight match, I thought we edged it on chances created and the game came down to fine margins.

"In the dying minutes we had a penalty shout not given which seemed very harsh, but being really honest the lads looked a bit leggy after Tuesday's enthralling match against Penzance where they came back from 3-1 down to gain a credible draw whereas Wendron had a run of the mill 4-0 away win to lowly St Day.

"Wendron, to their credit, defended superbly with their skipper Russell May simply outstanding.

"They are also an established SWPL team so it just shows how far the lads have come when we are really disappointed to have lost out to them.

"I am also not quite sure why we are playing three games in six days in October but that's something for the league to explain.

"I couldn't ask for any more from the lads though as they have been outstanding as this was only the second loss in the last 10 matches and we will be looking to bounce back on Saturday when we visit Holsworthy, kick-off 3 pm."

Wendron United: Z Telling, O Tomlinson, R Pledger, M Roberts, R May, L Andrew, R Reeve, D Greet, C Edney, B Stone, J Wood.

Subs: B Kemp, S Fisher, D Scoffin, J Warr, R Holen.

Falmouth Town Res: E Fearn, L Hilling, W Harding, F Robinson, R Carroll, T Fisher, K Thomas, R Townson, E Tresidder, A Hicks, S Buckley.

Subs: H Hopkins, J Davies, O Perrow, D Davey, G Evans.