St Newlyn East progressed in to the last 16 of the Junior Cup with a hard fought and physical encounter at fellow Duchy Premier side Tintagel. The visitors settled into the game early, playing into a strong wind, with their central midfield pairing of Ollie Downing and Harry Mugford dictating the tempo.

Tintagel tried to use the wind to their advantage but were not able to find a way past Newlyn’s Jamie Seery and Al Titterington at the heart of the Saints’ defence. Newlyn started to threaten the home side’s goal but it took them until the 20th minute to make the breakthrough they deserved when a fine move down the left saw Lucas Moses pass to the overlapping Will Perry who hit a low drive across the keeper and in to the bottom of the net.

An injury to a Tintagel player saw a lengthy delay that disrupted Newlyn’s pressure and allowed the home side to now start to assert themselves physically on Newlyn. A series of ugly fouls on Newlyn’s players led to free-kicks in dangerous situations but culminated with Downing being crudely brought down in the penalty area and allowing Ross London to dispatch the resulting penalty to double Newlyn’s lead. Still, the fouls continued to come and A late kick from behind saw Harry Page booked for Tintagel as the half ended.

After the restart Newlyn, playing with the wind in their backs, pressed Tintagel back but couldn’t increase their lead. Mugford and London both struck a post with shots and Seery’s header hit the crossbar. Newlyn were left ruing these missed chances when a miss-hit cross sailed over Ian Brooks and dropped into the back of the net on 63 minutes.

Despite this setback Newlyn composed themselves and again threatened to increase their lead through a Martyn Probert shot that was well saved and from Spencer Gaylard who saw his lob over the advancing keeper bounce agonisingly wide

London then scored his second of the game on 75 minutes finishing well with his left foot before Downing stoked home a free-kick following yet another bad challenge to score Newlyn’s fourth.

Tintagel’s Page then lunged at Moses for a foul that was late, dangerous and out of control. The referee rightly brandished a yellow card, Page’s second of the match, only to be surrounded by Tintagel players and unbelievably change his mind – his reason being that Page was only sixteen!

Newlyn travelled to Tintagel expecting a physical game but were more than a match, holding their own and starting to reach the performance levels from earlier in the season that have been missing due to a lack of matches – only 2 games in 2 months.

With no match this Saturday, Newlyn’s next fixture will be against Boscastle at Cargoll Road on Saturday 14th December.

The Pheasant Inn Man of The Match: Al Titterington