Bishop’s Cleeve 1 – 2 Mousehole
They say good things come to those who wait. We had waited seventy-seven days since the last Mousehole win. We had waited even longer for an away win; ninety-eight days. Yes, we’d waited and yes good things came.
What is it about the current Mousehole team that it plays its best football against the best teams. If the league was based on our results against the top six, we’d be in the top six! If it’s frustrating that we can only draw at Tavistock then it is total joy when we win at places like the Cleeve. Many believe it was the ghost goal here last season that cost us the three points that would have seen us in the play-offs so this was some sweet justice.
From the first whistle there was something special in the air. Was it that the game was on plastic, was it that it came the morning after the night before*, or was it the desperation of a proper relegation battle? Who knows, but whatever alchemy Jake Ash managed to conjure up on a day that started with torrential rain and finished in bright sunshine, this was a pleasure to witness.
Tallan Mitchell opened the scoring with the sort of goal that only Tallan Mitchell scores. He nicked it in the corner of the box surrounded by hordes of Cleevers. He jinked this way and that, looking for an opening, the chance seemed to have gone, then it came back, and went again, but then he chopped it to his left and smashed it home past a bemused keeper. Like an audience stooge who has his watch stolen by a magician the Cleeve stopper, looked around to work out where the ball had come from and how it had ended up in his net. The answer was pure Mitchell magic.
The first half was as good a forty-five minutes as Mousehole have played this season. The Bishops could not find a way past a defence that got in more blocks than an average season of Cornish road works. Every which way they turned their forward path was thwarted and they were relieved to go in at the break only one down. When they did occasionally beat the defence Ollie Chenoweth with hands the size of shovels was there to deny them.
All too rarely this season, our brave Seagulls have only managed one good half in a game. What this has meant is that wins have turned to draws and draws to defeats. When the hosts equalised nine minutes in to the second half this looked like another one of those days. A corner wasn’t properly cleared and the hoofed ball back in to the box fell to a free striker who lashed it home. Heads dropped, but on this occasion, only momentarily.
With the cliff edge of relegation looming in the rear view mirror the men in navy blue dusted themselves down and went for it. Only eight minutes later they were ahead again. A Bishops Cleeve attack was stopped and Tallan Mitchell picked the loose ball up in the part of the box from where he’d scored in the first half. He pushed the ball forward and looked up to see Hayden Turner running into open space. The ball was diagonal, long and true, landing in the stride of the hitman.
He still had much to do with a defender right on him but that didn’t matter. He cut inside, turning the defender hither and thither, and pulled a shot inside the near post, totally wrong-footing the keeper who had expected a curler to the other corner.
With half an hour still to go this game was far from over but something in the demeanour of the players gave the impression that this was a game they would not let slip. The home side had chances but none that were heart-stoppingly close and as time ticked away and Ed Harrison used all his years of experience at Tavistock to slow the game down, the travelling fans began to celebrate. Every Mousehole tackle, block and clearance was cheered like a goal. Every Cleeve miskick, misplaced pass, and tumble was equally enjoyed. When local hero Nigel D’Arcy, blew the final whistle you could have been mistaken for thinking that Mousehole had won the league, the cup and Eurovision.
Yes, this was just three points towards safety, but the victory meant so much more in the light of the *previous evening’s announcement of Jake’s and Adam Fletcher decision to step down at the season’s end. Their reign might be coming to a closebut there are six matches left and if this performance is anything to go by it’s going to be a pleasure to watch.
