WALTER C PARSON LEAGUE CUP

Callington Town 2 Okehampton Argyle 2 (AET), Argyle won 4-1 on penalties

WALTER C Parson League Cup holders Okehampton Argyle almost slipped up in this year’s opening round against a very good Callington side, who play in the Premier West Division, writes Charlie Bond.

For the first 30 minutes, Argyle were well on top and played some excellent passing football but didn’t capitalise on their dominance by taking the chances they created.

Admittedly, they were amazed by a refereeing decision early on where Luke Mortimore’s header looked to be clearly over the line for what would have been the first goal before being booted clear, but the referee waved play on. However, on 20 minutes, Okehampton took the lead with a lovely move. A great through pass from Luke Mortimore released Dan Koita to run on, take the ball around the keeper and finish into an empty net.

Shortly after, Argyle had a strong appeal for a penalty turned down when Josh Coles was brought down, but this was adjudged to be just outside the box.

The Okes then went off the boil as the first half drew to a close. On 39 minutes, Jake Rowe missed a long through ball, and the defence was unable to recover. This culminated in a good turn and finish from Callington’s Kieran Prescott.

Callington pressed hard in the second half and Argyle had to defend hard. Manager Kevin Squire utilised three of his substitutes, but despite a lot of hard work from the players, they just couldn’t get the attacking flow back that they had shown earlier.

Callington actually looked the more likely to score in this half but full-time was reached with the score still at 1-1.

So, into extra time. Just two minutes in, Callington forced a corner and with Argyle defending badly, Harvey Barrett was left clear to head the ball home.

Okehampton now had to show tremendous character to try to save the game and 14 minutes into extra time that is exactly what they did. Koita broke free down the left and played the ball across for Josh Coles to tap home. There was no more scoring in the remaining extra period and the match moved on to a penalty shoot-out.

Argyle took their shots first and Luke Mortimore fired home a perfect penalty, only to see Camelford emulate this for 1-1. Argyle continued with perfect penalty shots from Dan Koita and Josh Coles while Jack Arthur performed miracles in the Okey net to make 2 tremendous diving saves, leaving Argyle 3-1 up.

All the pressure was now on Craig Penberthy for the Okes as he stepped up to take the next penalty, but he showed great calmness to find the corner of the net to win the match for Argyle.

Next Saturday, Okehampton are away to Sturminster Newton in the FA Vase with a 3pm kick-off.