ST BLAZEY 1-4 MOUSEHOLE
SOUTH WEST PENINSULA LEAGUE, PREMIER WEST
WEDNESDAY 28TH AUGUST 2019
AT BLAISE PARK
Mousehole’s combination of passing, power and pace saw them through a potentially tricky contest and preserved their unbeaten start to the new league season.
The win sees Jake Ash’s team consolidate third place in the early table, just one point behind joint leaders Saltash United and St Austell.
St Blazey had won their last two away games and will have fancied putting Mousehole to the test on home territory, but The Seagulls completely dominated the first half despite only scoring the one goal.
Kieran Toland’s downward header from Paulo Sousa’s inch-perfect cross from the left got the visitors off to a flying start after six minutes, and more goals looked likely as the half wore on, with Lez Cela foiled twice by point-blank saves from keeper Liam Joyce and Toland having a shot cleared off the line.
St Blazey offered little as an attacking threat and will have been pleased to get to the interval only one goal in arrears. But after surviving a flurry of half-chances at the start of the second half, with wingmen Amara Bakayoko and Steven Ziboth heavily involved, the home side started to battle their way back into the game. Jack Alexander, scorer of a hat-trick in the previous match, forced Corey Harvey in the Mousehole goal into a flying save to push out a fierce cross-shot on 55 minutes, giving St Blazey the momentum to mount further attacks.
So it came as some relief when Ziboth doubled Mousehole’s lead in the 65th minute, firing home after an awakward right-wing cross into the area was not dealt with properly.
And four minutes later it was 3-0 as a superb run, turn and cross by impressive substitute Rheiss McClean was touched in at the far post by Bakayoko to give a more realistic look to the overall balance of play.
Then, as St Blazey were forced back by some dazzling patterns of play from midfield, Kieran Toland scored his second and Mousehole’s fourth goal on 73, side-stepping a defender and driving a brilliant left-footed shot high into the net from the edge of the box after Cela and Ziboth had carved open the right-hand side of the defence.
Toland twice came close to his second hat-trick of the season with a 25-yard free kick and a close-range shot into the side netting, before St Blazey’s Alexander scored inside the near post when given time and space on the edge of the penalty area.
MOUSEHOLE: Corey Harvey, Billy Curtis (captain), Mark Richards, Ben Williams, Paulo Sousa, Lez Cela, Scott Imade, Ben Harding, Amara Bakayoko, Kieran Toland, Steven Ziboth
Substitutes: Rheiss McClean (for Scott Imade, 65), Imani Matthews (for Amara Bakayoko, 72), Jamie Devine (for Ben Harding, 80), Mikey Flores, Tyler Tonkin
Mousehole scorers: Kieran Toland (6, 73), Steven Ziboth (65), Amara Bakayoko (69)
Referee: Neil Hunnisett Attendance: 130
*This Saturday (31st August) Mousehole host Wadebridge Town at Trungle Parc in their seventh league match of the season (3pm). The Bridgers have so far had an indifferent start, winning two games (3-2 at Sticker and 5-0 at Callington), drawing one (1-1 at home to Godolphin), but losing three – all at home: 4-1 to Porthleven, 3-2 against Liskeard last Saturday, and a 9-0 hammering at home to table-topping Saltash United on Tuesday. *The Seagulls’ SWP League Cup first round tie at Wadebridge has been brought forward one day from Saturday 21st September to Friday 20th, with a 7.45pm kick off. Mousehole agreed to the change in order to enable Wadebridge to stage an event at Bodieve Park on the Saturday. The winners of the tie will be at home to either Porthleven or Penzance in the second round – and if it’s Mousehole it will be on Friday 25th October.
