Willand 3 – 0 Mousehole

At all levels of football managers talk about moments. Moments that change matches. In some respects this game turned on such a moment. Could it be a moment that just turned a match, or could it be something bigger.

Mousehole arrived at Silver Street on the back of a record of only one defeat in 2025. With a play-off place still not secured and a target of a top three finish very much at the forefront of their thoughts they could have been expected to take all three points from Willand; a team lingering dangerously close to the relegation zone. It wasn’t to be.

The early exchanges saw the home side on top without really threatening Chenoweth’s goal and then the moment happened. Julio Fresneda was surging towards the box when he was cynically taken out after having played his pass. A direct free kick about 25 yards from goal was awarded. Tim Nixon and Hayden Turner stood over the ball for a few moments before the latter gave way and left the coast clear. Nicco stepped back a few feet and then fired a shot; straight and true. The keeper saw it but couldn’t reach it but the trajectory was just too high and it struck the bar. Seeming to defy physics the ball didn’t ping back off the bar but lolloped into the air and landed in the grateful arms of the keeper.

A team near the bottom of the table conceding early against high flyers almost always ends only one way so this moment was a turning point. Willand kept their sheet clean and from then on there was only ever one team in it.

Chances came and went for the hosts and it seemed only a matter of time before they broke the deadlock. It finally came shortly after the half hour. An intercepted Mousehole through ball was quickly transferred in the other direction. Three chances to stop the flow towards Ollie were missed and a slick move ended with Kempster playing in Brandon Bak to tuck the ball in to the net. It was the sort of goal that Mousehole like to score but here they were on the receiving end. It was a dagger blow that they never recovered from.

Only one down at half time is often a place from which the Seagulls recover, and recover well but that was not to be the case here. The expected barrage at the start of the second half did not materialise. Instead, the game was virtually over after fifty-three minutes.

The ball was lost in the Willand half when a Max Hill pass to Jack Symons was stolen with a little too much ease. A pass out wide to an unmarked Kempster who then played it first time in to the box to an unmarked Finley Rooke. He had time to let it bounce, steady himself, and score with a single touch.

That was game pretty much game over. When the final nails were hammered into the Mousehole coffin with twenty minutes left it was a goal that will send shivers down the spine of the travelling defenders and coaching staff. A long ball from the back was controlled by an unchallenged Rooke on the edge of the box. His second touch sent it under Chenoweth’s lunge into the net.

With their only shot on target in the second half coming with ten minutes left this was a match that Mousehole will want to forget quickly. When a couple of players are under par it is still possible to win but when almost everyone is not at their game the result is inevitable.

It was their second league defeat of 2025 and it has to be seen as a blip. Five games to go, still in third place, this team has its fate in its own hands. Last season saw the Seagulls win the last five games to clinch the final play off place. Something similar is needed now to snare a top three spot. Stay tuned.

DIDCOT 2-2 MOUSEHOLE

It is with a sense of sadness and regret that we have to announce our withdrawal of our Development Team from the Premier (West) Division of the Kernow Stone St Piran League.

Following the departure of the team’s manager, Drew Symons, along with a number of players, we attempted to put together a squad that could complete the season. After much effort this proved impossible so late in the season and the difficult decision was taken. We would like to thank League Secretary Steve Carpenter for his help and guidance through this difficult time.

We wish Drew, and the players who have followed him, well and much success as they continue their football journey. Mousehole AFC now turns its attention to the future of the players here from our numerous youth squads, our ladies and our first team.

We are discussing the best way forward internally and would like to hear from our fans, volunteers, players and their families at a Forum to be held in the Clubhouse at Interiora Trungle Parc on April 2nd at 7.30pm.

Heading the panel will be Jake Ash (First Team Manager) and Billy Jacka (Chairman). Other panel members to be announced.

Mousehole 1-0 Larkhall

After the disappointment of Wednesday’s early exit from the Cornwall Senior Cup Mousehole needed to bounce back to maintain their push for promotion. The visiting Larkhall have drifted down the table having been in the play-off mix last season but after St Austell nothing could be taken for granted.

Overnight and morning rain had put a little bit of doubt on the fixture going ahead but with the clouds clearing an an eleven o’clock pitch inspection became a formality. The pitch was firm underfoot and by kick off the sun was out and all was set for a glorious day.

As it turned out the result was a good one but the match itself will not last long in the memories of the spectators or players. The only exception to this is the winning goal, which was a text book move but we’ll come back to the later.

In a first half where the home side had a massive sixty eight percent possession one could have expected there to be an avalanche of chances but in total, between the teams mustered just four attempts on goal. The first was for Larkhall from a corner. It was cleared to the edge of the area from where their advancing midfielder volleyed just wide but not close enough to worry Ollie Chenoweth.

That came after twenty or so minutes of a tense affair. Defences were dominant with neither side managing to find space to create opportunities. The nearest either side came to scoring before the goal was actually a back-pass from Hayden Turner. With the ball on the half way line he could see no way forward and punted it towards his own goal. The arc looked like it was heading towards the goal and it caused Chenoweth to scramble towards his left hand post, grateful to see it go out for a corner.

After forty minutes the deadlock was finally broken. It came with the one real quality moment of the match but like a Van Gogh it was worth the entry fee on its own.

It began in the Mousehole penalty are with Chenoweth transferring a back pass from Will Sullivan out to Jack Calver on the left. He took a couple of touches before rolling it to Turner on the half way line. Turner took a single touch and then sent Morgan Lewis chasing further down the left. The Welsh wizard, relishing his return to the West, passed it first time into the box. He was threading a needle as the ball ran ahead of two retreating defenders and in front of a desperate keeper. Only Lewis had seen an onrushing Tim Nixon on the far side. His run, perfectly timed, allowed him to reach the ball on the edge of the six-yard box. The keeper was too late to scramble across and Nixon prodded it home.

Mousehole had a few chances in the second period to sew the game up but couldn’t find that final nail to put into the Larkhall coffin. Nixon came close again from close range, Turner clipped one over the bar following a lovely Sullivan through ball but no one could actually score.

Mousehole’s failure to kill them off gave Larkhall hope that they could save a point late on as the Seagulls had done on the reverse fixture. Suddenly all the play was in Chenoweth’s box and whilst they never seriously threatened to score the final ten minutes were much more nerve-wracking than should have been.

The final whistle came as a relief and extended the Seagulls’ unbeaten run to eight. There were six wins in those eight and if that run can be replicated in the last eight matches of the season Mousehole should finish in second but in football you never know. Stay tuned.

Mousehole 1-3 St Austell

Football is full of highs and lows. Four days after the euphoria of a last minute comeback win against Bishops Cleeve, Mousehole suffered the other end of the spectrum when they were booted out of the cup by a feisty St Austell team.

On a night when the mist was threatening to roll over the pitch it was the men in red who did the rolling as they moved on into the final. Almost from the first minute they were on top and a statistic of six shots to three showed that especially as those efforts brought two goals.

The first came in the eleventh minutes when Matt Searlee picked up a loose ball in the centre circle. He ran straight for the Mousehole goal with Julio Fresenda in pursuit. If this was the Premier League our Spanish maestro would have brought him down and taken the yellow but he tried to keep on the right side of the law. He was never catching the pacy forward and the Seagulls’ defensive line backed off. They backed off assuming Searlee would try to beat them but he looked up and saw Lewis Moyle fractionally off his line. That was all the invitation he needed to thwack an unstoppable drive over Moyle’s head and in off the underside of the bar.

Going in one nil down is nothing new to this Mousehole team so there no worries at that point, until things took a dark turn just before the half hour. James Ward went up for and, as always, won a header on the halfway line. As he and the St Austell forward went to get up Wardy used the face of his opponent to push himself up. Was it deliberate? Was it simply eagerness to rejoin the fray and totally accidental? The referee deemed it the former and showed Wardy a red card.

That it was a bad night for our mountainous defender was obvious as he stalked off but it also curtailed the return to starting action of Ross Derham as he was sacrificed to bring on Jack Calver as replacement for the early-showering Ward.

Bad turned worse when a hopeful punt forward bounced awkwardly in the box. Jacob Kevern and Lewis Moyle waited for each other clear it and in nipped Adam Carter to loft it in to the net.

Seagulls fans will remember a performance away at Thatcham which had the same half time score and ended in a famous three two win so not all was lost as the players trudged off.

Playing with ten men did not stop Mousehole from controlling much of the second half. There was occasional scare but mostly it was turquoise shirts pushing for an opening. The St Austell defence stood firm and as the hour passed it looked like this would be the end of our cup run.

After sixty seven minutes Fresneda changed the mood when he smashed a shot in to the top corner after a neat pass from Tim Nixon. The cheers were still ringing out in the cold night air and optimism was still cursing through the veins of the Seagulls’ fans when the game was ended as a contest just minute after the goal.
A through ball down the right looked to have been played with the recipient in an offside position but the linesman didn’t see it. The ball was crossed to a late arriving Keiran Bishop who nodded it home.

The thick red line held firm after that and the game fizzled out for a famous win for St Austell and an ignominious defeat for Mousehole. It’s time to concentrate on the league. Talking of which, the only bit of good news was that Wardy’s suspension would not be served in the Southern Leaague.

Bristol Manor Farm 0 – 2 Mousehole

For the third time this season Mousehole lined up against Bristol Manor Farm. Honours were even over two games at Trungle Parc with the Seagulls winning the league tussle three nil and the Farm triumphing in the FA Trophy by two goals to nil. Much has happened since the league meeting at the start of November, including the ground now being called Interiora Parc, and the travelling fans knew that a win here would see Mousehole firmly in the play-off places.

We’ve hit the part of the season where most pitches are flattened mud with the odd blade of grass so once again it promised not to be a footballing fest. Mousehole have become used to adapting their style for less grassy pitches but had not won away at a top ten side for a long while and the opening exchanges were pretty even. Neither side had created a clear-cut opening before Mousehole took the lead after twenty one minutes.

It came from a slick move started by a short pass by James Ward to Ryan Barrett on the right. He curled a long pass deep into enemy territory for Hayden Turner to latch on to. Ending up wider than he probably wanted to he was faced up by the BMF left back. Turner took a touch, looked up and saw Oscar Massey arriving at pace in to the box. He drilled the ball to the mop-topped forward who cushioned it with his right instep whilst pirouetting away from a bamboozled defender. This opened up the path to goal with the keeper expecting a shot to his right but Massey doesn’t always do the expected and slammed it to the keeper’s left. One nil, and just about deserved.

Bristol created and spurned two chances before the interval. The first was a long-range effort pulled wide but the second was much closer. The referee saw a tussle between Medo Konté and one of their forwards near the edge of the box. It was hand bags at dawn with neither seemingly more aggressive than the other but the official saw fit to book our lanky left back and award a free kick to the home team about twenty-five yards out.

The wall looked good, Ollie looked ready, but a free kick of a quality out of keeping with much else that the home side had henceforth served up boomeranged round the wall and hit the inside of the post with Ollie looking nervous. It rebounded at pace away from the goal much to Mousehole’s defence’s relief.

One up at half time seemed just about right but the Seagulls knew that the second half would start with a barrage. A forward led from the wing by ex-Mouse Evander Grubb showed a bit of spirit as the half started but did not threaten Ollie’s goal with anything serious.

All the good chances were falling to the team in the white and green and when Tim Nixon hit the post it only seemed a matter of when not if the lead would be doubled. The second duly arrived ten minutes in to the half.

Jack Calver, from the left, played a long cross field pass to Ryan Barrett. He controlled it and played it through to Jack Symons running clear of a static defence. He took a small touch to take it out of his feet and shot but the Bristol keeper managed to get his body in the way. He wasn’t able hold onto the ball and it rebounded out to a loitering Massey just outside the box. One soft touch to bring it down was followed by a crashing shot into the roof of the net. The boy doesn’t score tap ins!

Two nil, game over. There were no scares to threaten the clean sheet, three in three games now, and the three points were in the bag. The final bit of action was the unfortunate sending off of Medo for a second bookable offence. In 1970 it might not have been a foul but Medo’s dad wasn’t even born then so sadly in 2025 his tackle which took the ball first followed by a follow through taking the man saw him take an early bath.

That was merely a side note to a great afternoon where three more points were won on the road.