St Newlyn East’s run of results and injuries continued into the local derby against Godolphin Atlantic, who were arguably at their strongest for many weeks, and ended with the visitors situation a lot worse. The Saints were able to welcome back Al Titterington to their squad but were still missing the suspended Ryan Pooley along with the missing Lucas Moses, Brodie Mitchell, Ian Books and long term absentees Lewis Dodd, Chris Ballett and Aaron Thompson.

The opening exchanges were even at a wind-swept Godolphin Way with Newlyn playing with the wind in their backs. However disaster struck again for Newlyn when on 15 minutes last season’s leading goalscorer Martyn Probert chased a through ball down in to the home side’s penalty area only to pull up clutching his hamstring and Newlyn were forced to make an unplanned change – Probert joining their growing list of absentees and was replaced by Ross London.

Stand-in goalkeeper Tom Moody was called in to action, tipping over a long range effort from Godolphin’s veteran talisman Lee Paxton. However the home side opened the scoring when a cross into the area on 25 minutes saw Ben Colquhoun rise between Steve Harris and Moody for the ball to come off his shoulder and inch over the line.

Saints Captain Jack Thompson than struck a free-kick narrowly wide but pulled up immediately after and was unable to move freely meaning he too was forced off at half-time.

With the wind in their favour Godolphin pinned Newlyn back for long periods with the visitors defending resolutely and Moody making some find saves. Godolphin thought they had doubled their advantage when a header found the net only for referee Steggles to disallow it for a foul on Elliott Dodd.

With Godolphin not able to score the important second goal Newlyn suddenly came to life and their counter attacks threatened the home side as it was Newlyn who looked likeliest to score as the game entered its closing moments. A moment of frustration saw Sam Bullen sin-binned on 88 minutes and swung the game back to Godolphin as with their numerical advantage they added their second of the game on 94 minutes.

With just one win in 2019 Newlyn need to earn some points – and quickly – as they are in real danger of being dragged in to a late relegation battle.