St Newlyn East produced their best performance of the season to date to defeat Gunnislake and leapfrog them in to second place in the Duchy Premier Division with goals from Daniel Parsonage and a Callum Faulkner brace.

To say that Newlyn dominated the first half would be an understatement as they completely outplayed a shell-shocked Gunnislake team. The home side’s passing and movement were too much for the visitors with Newlyn winning every ball and able to create chances at will. The Saints should have scored four goals in the opening ten minutes, but their finishing let them down with Ross London and Brodie Mitchell both missing opportunities.

With the Gunnislake goalkeeper making a string of fine saves Newlyn finally thought they had scored when London’s rocket from twenty-five yards flew past him only for it to strike the crossbar and cannon to safety. Newlyn’s defence were rarely troubled with Jamie Seery and the ageless Al Titterington marshalling those around them. Will Perry surged down the left wing - overlapping Dan Parsonage, and his cross found Mitchell who headed over. The only shock Newlyn had was that they were unable to score in the first half.

Newlyn continued the second half in the same vein as the first and the introduction of Callum Faulkner and Lucas Moses at half time demonstrated the depth that Newlyn now have in their ranks. The breakthrough finally came for the home side on the hour mark when Faulkner found Parsonage whose shot nestled into the corner of the net.

A second quickly followed when Faulkner remained ice-cool in a crowded penalty area before driving home. Gunnislake looked like a boxer on hanging on the ropes and Newlyn’s centre midfield pairing of Cameron Buchanan and Harry Mugford chased down every loose ball, winning possession and feeding Newlyn’s attackers.

Newlyn sealed the win with their best move of the game seven minutes from time. A fine interchange of passing sent Perry flying down his wing and his low cross into the penalty area was met by Faulkner who had timed his run to perfection to side foot home past the helpless keeper.

Newlyn’s manager Martin Grigg said after “the first 45 minutes was the best I’ve seen from my team all season. We know they have that type of performance in them and we keep reminding them just how good they can be every week. It was fantastic just watching them play today and this win is reward for all the hard work they are putting in every week”

The impressive win keeps Newlyn’s run going and showed that the new additions to their squad are starting to gel and play with style and determination. The Saints know they will have to be at their best on Saturday when they travel to a very good Polperro side in the quarter final of the CCFA Junior Cup, 2pm KO

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