St Newlyn East bounced back from two recent defeats with a hard-fought draw against a young Wadebridge Reserves side whilst missing several key players through work. Injuries and suspension. Both sides observed a minute’s silence before the game as a mark of respect to Mike Murray from the old East Cornwall Premier League who had recently passed away.

The opening exchanges were even with Wadebridge shooting over the crossbar after 5 minutes before Harry Mugford shot high over the Wadebridge goal 2 minutes later and this was then followed by a good block by the visiting keeper from Simon Baulch who should then have scored minutes later on 11 minutes when he was set free from a brilliant Russell Brooker pass but again his attempt on goal was well saved.

Jake Watson was influential on the right wing and when he cut inside on 20 minutes hs deflected shot appeared to be curling in but it struck the base of the post and out into the path of Martyn Probert who saw his strike from the rebound saved.

Against the run of play it was the visitors who broke the deadlock on 25 minutes when a speculative shot from distance by Sam Richards cannoned off a Wadebridge forward and into the other corner leaving Newlyn’s stand-in goalkeeper Jack Thompson wrong footed. Mugford was driving his team forward from Newlyn’s midfield and he flashed another shot over the Wadebridge bar 5 minutes later.

However Wadebridge were able to double their lead on 33 minutes when a direct free kick 25 yards out was curled into the net from Sam Arnold via the underside of the crossbar for a superb goal. Newlyn’s front two of Baulch and Probert linked up well to force another good save from the Beare in the Wadebridge goal but Wadebridge added a third with 7 minutes left in the half – a tame shot by Richards was misjudged by Thompson and the ball squirmed through his gloves and trickled over the line to fortuitously give Richards his second goal of the game.

A late goal saw Newlyn reduce the arrears when Baulch’s shot was saved but rebounded to him and he made no mistake from close range at the second attempt.

Brooker was booked early in the second half for stopping a Wadebridge attack, but this saw the start of the Newlyn fightback. Sonny Summers-Evans cut into the penalty area only to be brought down leaving Watson to smash the resulting penalty kick low into the bottom corner of the net, low to the goalkeeper’s right. A soft free kick moments later helped Wadebridge to restore their two-goal advantage when the ball fell to Rob Rosevear who was unmarked and had the freedom of Cargoll Road to easily finish.

Watson saw his effort cannon off the crossbar before substitute Dan Ball drove into the box and flash a shot inches wide . Ball’s cross was then met by Newlyn’s other substitute Chris Sturgess who slid home for Newlyn’s third on 78 minutes to bring the gap to the one goal and the same players again combined moments later but Sturgess sent his header wide. Newlyn were now piling on the pressure to the young Wadebridge side and they got their just reward when Sturgess scrambled home the equaliser from another Newlyn corner with 7 minutes remaining.

As the minutes ticked by Newlyn continued to press for a winner to complete a magnificent comeback from a three-goal deficit but were unable to find the final finish that would have earned all three points.

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