FA VASE 2ND ROUND PROPER

Okehampton Argyle 2 Thornbury Town 0

OKEHAMPTON Argyle progressed to the last 64 of this nationwide competition with a great win over Bristol side Thornbury, of the Hellenic League Premier, a level above Okey, writes Charlie Bond.

Argyle are the last Peninsula League outfit remaining in the Vase having had to get through two qualifying rounds and two rounds proper.

This was a superb match to watch for the spectators as Thornbury are an excellent footballing side and the game was played at a very fast pace. The first half was very much an end-to-end affair and began scrappily with the ball being played high and long by both sides as they tested each other out.

Jack Arthur, in the Okey goal, picked up an early yellow card after bringing down Thornbury’s Chalmers just outside of the box. The resulting free kick was fired over the bar and chances were few and far between after this.

Centre backs Steve Goss and Jake Rowe were in fine form. About midway through the half, Thornbury created the first real chance when Black fired a cross across the goal that Arthur did well to push away. Shortly after, Argyle forced the away keeper Clark into a low save.

As the first half came to a close, Thornbury made a great chance when Moss played a good one-two and brought a brilliant save out of Arthur.

The second half saw Argyle begin to create more chances and they forced keeper Clark into a good save down low on his left. The resulting corner created a great chance for Argyle with the ball hitting the away keeper and then being cleared off the line by a defender.

On 46 minutes, Argyle’s pressure paid off when Adam Bilcock’s low corner was turned in by Okehampton full back Dominic Harnell.

Argyle brought on 17-year-old substitute Owen Pickard for the last 20 minutes to rest Dan Koita who had run himself into the ground up front. In injury time, with 96 minutes gone, Pickard played a good ball to Luke Mortimore and then drew defenders to the right for Mortimore to run through three tackles and fire home brilliantly into the bottom corner from the edge of the box, putting the game to bed.

This was a tremendous all round team performance with standout players difficult to choose, but centre-back Steve Goss was Man of the Match.

Dominic Harnell, Jake Rowe and keeper Jack Arthur also caught the eye and in midfield, Adam Bilcock was outstanding, with the three forwards working extremely hard also.

Next Saturday, Okehampton return to league action and are at home to Axminster Town for a 3pm kick-off.