Carlsberg South West Peninsula premier
Tavistock A F C 0
Saltash United 2
A GOOD sized crowd witnessed a fine game of football, on a beautiful autumnal evening to celebrate the club's 125th anniversary.
The only thing was that the result was not what the home fans would have liked.
It was the Lambs' keeper Adam Fuller that was first called into action in the fifth minute making a fine save to deny Saltash striker Kevin Fyneboy from opening the scoring.
Two minutes later Joe Carey produced a great through ball to Carlton Farnham, but the forward was adjudged to be in an off-side position.
Both teams continued to play some attractive football and play was equally balanced with both sides probing for an opening.
Lyle Johnson for Tavistock made a fine run down the left and his cross was met by Jarryd Kelly but his shot was just wide of the target.
In the 20th minute Dave Hallett and Carlton Farnham combined well and opened up the visitors' defence but Hallett's shot failed to trouble Tom Blackler in the Saltash goal.
Fuller then produced a fine save to deny Aaron Cusack from giving the visitors the lead.
Saltash were now posing a real threat and they had the ball in the net minutes later but Fyneboy was yards off side. The game continued to flow from end to end, until in the 42nd minute when the referee awarded Saltash a penalty. Ahearn appeared to win the ball fairly in a challenge on Fyneboy, but the referee deemed it to be a foul and awarded a penalty kick, which Russell converted.
The second half started at a fast pace and it was the home team that almost equalised in the 48th minute when a fine move resulted in Jarryd Kelly's fierce shot, whistled over the cross bar.
Four minutes later another fine move between Joe Carey and Ryan Moorhead set up Kelly but he dragged his shot just wide of the target from the angle of the penalty area.
The visitors' second goal was somewhat bizarre, as the ball seemed to going harmlessly out of play, but Cusack never gave up and retrieved the ball and his cross was tapped into the net by Sam Farrant.
In the 65th minute the Lambs' Ryan Moorhead made a superb run down the right flank leaving three defenders in his wake, but his cross into the penalty area was cleared for a corner by a well marshalled Saltash defence.
The Lambs continued to push forward and it was Carlton Farnham that cut in from the left wing and fired a shot inches wide of the target.
The visitors were now having more than a fair share of the play, with Fyneboy a real threat. His willingness to chase lost causes, put pressure on defenders, and to shoot whenever he was in range caused the home defence real problems.
As hard as they tried the Lambs could not open up the well marshalled Saltash defence and over the 90 minute they deserved to take the points.
The Lambs will be disappointed not to have taken something from the game, but they must continue to try and be more clinical in the attacking third of the field.
The teams approach play is really good but there is no real punch in front of goal.
There were some fine individual performances with the youngsters, Robbins, Northmore and in particular Ryan Moorhead all had fine games.