St Newlyn East travelled to St. Minver expecting and hoping to build on their opening game success but were given an early season wake up call for failing to put in the effort needed to succeed at this level.

Newlyn started slowly and in the very opening minute their defence failed to deal with St. Minver’s first attack which saw them walk through and easily open the scoring when Rob Green made run from midfield that wasn’t followed to smash home. The next 10 minutes was dominated by poor Saints defending and slack play seeing the home side through time and again.

Ross London did find himself open on 11 minutes, forcing a good save from the home ‘keeper, but that was all the visitors could produce for the first twenty minutes. An injury-break for a home player allowed the Saints a chance to regroup slightly and London again came close on 22 minutes firing narrowly wide, before a header from a corner came close to glancing the far post. A Newlyn goal was disallowed for a dubious offside call on the half-hour and Owen London hit the crossbar before blasting a shot just over the bar with 8 minutes left in the half.

This good spell in the match for Newlyn came to nothing when, after being outplayed for almost 20 minutes, St Minver broke through easily once more to fire home and double their lead with Kempthorne out-muscling Ben Lawrence to finish past Cody Hill into the far corner with a minute left in the half – things were almost instantly worse for the Saints but for Ross Emery making a vital goal-line clearance.

Halftime changes saw the introduction of Jadon Gotthardt and Dan Woodgate coming on for Cam Burt and Lawrence but Newlyn started the second half in the same disappointing vein, and more changes were needed. Five minutes later saw Dom Roberts and Martyn Probert on for Harry Mugford and Owen London, then on 59 minutes Emery was switched for Jackson Rochford.

Some inconsistent refereeing decisions confused both sets of players and benches, leading to a disjointed period of play, but it was Probert that gave Newlyn some hope on 72 minutes with a lethal right-foot volley from the edge of the box to reduce the deficit. Hopes were quickly dashed, though as a poor defensive line saw St. Minver’s Sam Brown beat the attempted offside trap from a disputed soft free kick and slot home easily just one minute later.

Newlyn staged a late resurgence as the game drew to a close with a free kick awarded - amazingly from a Newlyn handball - being fired home by captain Jack Thompson to bring the Saints again to within a goal of saving a point. But defensive errors cost them dear once again as a mistake by ‘keeper Hill who saw his attempted clearance fall straight to Brown who gleefully had the simplest of tap-ins into an unguarded net allowing the home side to come out deserved 4-2 winners.

A disappointing day all round by Newlyn who will need to bounce back in some style if they are to get something from Wednesday evenings’ visit to league leaders St Blazey.

Newquay Health Man Of The Match: Chris Sturgess