St Newlyn East were knocked out of the KMD Developments Knock-Out Cup at the Quarter Final stage by title chasing St Mawgan at a gusty and windswept Trevarrian that made the game farcical and more like school playground football for most of the game. Missing four regular key players in Aaron Thompson, Will Perry, Sam Lawrence and Lewis Dodd, Newlyn were dealt another blow when influential midfielder Harry Mugford was forced off with an injury after seven minutes.

Kicking up the famous slope in to a strong gale Newlyn thought they had opened the scoring after five minutes when Ryan Pooley’s lob appeared to have beaten Jordan Cole in the home side’s goal only for it to be incredibly blown back away from goal and allow Cole to make the save.

With the wind in their backs it was unsurprising that Newlyn found themselves pinned in to their half for most of the opening forty-five minutes and it took ten minutes for St Mawgan to open their account although Newlyn believed that the gal shouldn’t have stood. A deep cross into the area was clearly missed by Saints’ stopper Zefran Counter only for referee Alan Howells to mistakenly award a corner. As Newlyn protested the hosts took the corner and Prentice stabbed home following a goalmouth scramble.

Elliot Powell was unlucky not to equalize when some neat interplay saw him find space in the penalty area but his shout was blocked by a defender when seemingly heading in to the bottom corner. St Mawgan became frustrated as their usual neat passing seemed to have deserted them as they too found it difficult to come to terms with the conditions.

Counter made some fine saves and Newlyn seemed to be heading into the break having only conceded the one goal but a fine move by St Mawgan saw Louis Price place the ball in to the corner of the net with just two minutes remaining.

With the wind now behind them in the second half it was Newlyn who were able to pin the home side back for long periods. Despite their pressure the Saints seemed to lack the final incisive pass and finish that would give them hope of reducing the arrears. Jack Thompson saw a curling effort flash agonisingly wide of the post and Brodie Mitchell saw his shot go wide. Thompson also saw a spectacular long range shot fly just over the crossbar.

As Newlyn threw players forward in an attempt to score they were forced to leave space at the back and St Mawgan exploited this when Chris Allen finally put the game beyond Newlyn’s reach with a goal that saw the ball squirm under the dive of Counter and roll in to the net on eighty-nine minutes.

Despite the loss Newlyn know they have once again matched another of the top three in an evenly contested game. They will, however, need to be at full strength next Saturday when they travel to table-topping Foxhole Stars in a Duchy Premier Division clash.

The Pheasant Inn Man of the Match: Jack Thompson