St Newlyn East won their opening fixture in the Duchy League Cup away at AFC Bodmin with a convincing victory that should have seen them score more from the clear chances they created. Newlyn gave a debut to new signing Callum Faulkner who transferred to the Saints from Godolphin Atlantic Reserves and Holywell & Cubert.

It took Newlyn just 5 minutes to register a shot on target with Ross London’s effort was well saved by Bodmin’s goalkeeper who parried his shot against a post and out for a corner. Twelve minutes later and Brodie Mitchell opened the scoring for Newlyn, finishing from a superb pass off Harry Mugford.

London’s ferocious shot from distance struck the crossbar with the keeper left stranded and only able to watch it fly out of play – the second time London had hit the woodwork in the opening 25 minutes. Mitchell again found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper but some how managed to contrive to side foot wide with the goal at his mercy.

Newlyn introduced Faulkner and the debutant produced an assured performance in midfield, maintaining possession and driving Newlyn forward. London’s in-swinging corner saw Newlyn again hit the crossbar – this time from defender Ross Emery’s thunderous header. Martyn Probert sped past three defenders before unselfishly squaring for London who reacted quickest but saw his clever flick go agonizingly wide.
London made no mistake however when he raced on to another through ball – this time from Mitchell – and calmly finished. Bodmin’s day was to get worse five minutes before half-time when London again outpaced the defence only to be cynically hacked down when seemingly certain to score leaving the referee no option but to show a red card to the defender.

The second half saw Newlyn retain possession and great work from Probert saw his pass find London who added his second of the day. Mitchell then grabbed his second and Newlyn’s fourth heading home a corner at the far past.

Having missed some good opportunities from close range Mitchell tried his luck from distance and his dipping drive from 30 yards was inches away from going in. Sam Lawrence then saw his goal bound effort strike a defender and divert off target.

Numerous changes from Newlyn saw Bodmin come back into the game towards the end and Ian Brooks was forced to make a fine save. Minutes later however Bodmin grabbed a late consolation when a throw-in that seemed to have come off a Bodmin player was awarded to the home side catching the Saints unawares and Seymour was able to capitalize on the confusion and fire home.

This Saturday Newlyn face a tough fixture away at Tintagel as they return to action in the Duchy Premier Division.

The Pheasant Inn Man-of-the-Match: Callum Faulkner