St Newlyn East suffered their worst defeat for three seasons at the hands of treble-chasing Foxhole Stars. The 9-0 hammering coming a week after Newlyn’s battling performance to go out of the Knock-Out Cup at the hands of second place St Mawgan. However it was the nature of this defeat that has shocked all at the Club as it was surely an awful performance for seventy minutes.

Despite a positive and evenly contested opening twenty minutes Newlyn went in at half-time 4-0 down to goals from Griffin (x2), Kenny and Reed-Bennett. The last two goals coming in quick succession on 41 and 42 minutes that effectively ended the game. The second half saw Newlyn completely outplayed and another five goals completed the rout – Reed Bennett (x3), Griffin (x1) and Carhart (x1) on 90 minutes. To make matters worse Newlyn look to have lost influential defender Elliott Dodd for up to six weeks with a hamstring injury. Dodd joins his centre-forward brother Lewis on Newlyn’s injury list who is also absent with a long term injury himself.

Afterwards Saints Manager Martin Grigg said he was embarrassed and humiliated by the defeat and the awful performance from his side. “I’ve never been on the end of a defeat like that before as either player or manager – we were awful. Let’s not beat about the bush this was the worst performance I’ve witnessed, completely lacking in effort, spirit and any quality whatsoever. We all have to take responsibility - especially me. I chose the team, set it up and thought it was good enough to get a result and challenge Foxhole. I was wrong – Foxhole completely outplayed us on the day. We now have to move on, learn from this and I expect and want a response from us, back to front, in our next game”

Grigg went on to highlight what he feels is a growing problem in Duchy Football. “We’ve now played 14 League games and in half of those we’ve faced South West Peninsular League players whose normal team didn’t have a game so have been brought in for just one match. I have no problems with teams who use higher league players where these players play for a higher league side within the same club - but other clubs are signing on and using players from other clubs for just a one off appearance to make sure they get a result. I know its something that has always happened at our standard – and breaks no rules - but with more Peninsular League games taking place mid-week or on a Friday night it is happening more and more and leaves a bit of a bad taste!”

Newlyn’s next fixture is at home to Gerrans & St Mawes 2.30pm KO where they will hope to put in an improved performance.