Newlyn were beaten for the first time this season at league leaders Gunnislake, but the match was far closer than the result suggests with Newlyn on the receiving end of some bad luck along with their own self-destructiveness.

Missing key players in top goal scorer Ross London, and influential midfielders Matt Toms and Callum Faulkner The Saints already had a steep hill to climb and this was made even worse after 20 minutes of the game when goalkeeper Ian Brooks was forced off with an injury sustained in a collision with the Gunnislake forward forcing defender Ross Emery to don the gloves for the remainder of the match.

Newlyn had started the game brightly testing the home goalkeeper from the outset and hitting the post. Captain Jack Thompson saw his ferocious goal bound shot cannon to safety off a defender’s back who had turned away from the shot.

On 40 minutes came the game’s decisive incident when a moment of madness from Saints’ Jamie Seery saw him receive a second caution and was sent off reducing Newlyn down to 10 men for the remaining 50 minutes.

As expected the second half saw long periods of Gunnislake pressure as they tried to make their numerical advantage work in their favour but Newlyn stood firm and defended heroically with Newlyn’s back four of Thompson, Al Titterington, Will Perry and Josh Dingle outstanding – putting their bodies on the line and tackling as if their lives depended on it.

As the game went on Newlyn started to tire but it took them until 70 minutes to make the breakthrough when a mis-punch from stand-in keeper Emery fell to the feet of Kevin McCallion – playing for Gunnislake instead of Dobwalls’ Peninsular League side – tapped home from 4 yards. Five minutes later and the home side were awarded a soft penalty from minimal contact in a foul by Steve Harris and they were able to double their advantage from the resulting spot kick.

Newlyn dd have opportunities and Thompson’s free kick was well saved by the home goalkeeper. The Saints though they should have had a penalty awarded from a foul clearly inside the penalty area but the stand in local referee deemed the foul was outside the area.
Gunnislake scored their third late in the match on 81 minutes when an awful bounce deceived Titterington allowing McCallion to score his second.

After, Saints Manager Martin Grigg said he was proud of the effort his side had put into the game “we knew it would be tough today with the players we were missing but you can’t plan to lose your keeper after 20 minutes. Unfortunately, the sending off was a huge game changer as until then I thought we were slightly edging it. With a full team on the pitch I back us to get something out of today”

This Saturday Newlyn are again on the road as they travel to North Petherwin reserves in the Junior Cup, 2.00pm Kick Off.

The Pheasant Inn Man-of-the-Match: Jack Thompson