Bideford 3 – 1 Mousehole
Words by Daniel Tasker
The film Groundhog Day features a melancholic Bill Murray in a world where every time he wakes up he is back at the start of the same day. It becomes a loop that he can’t break out of. Your reporter knows how Murray feels. Watching the Seagulls lose away in the cup to a team they had just beaten by three goals in the league made Murray’s dilemma feel like a walk in the park.
The statistics suggest that when you score the first goal you have a ninety percent chance of not losing and an eighty percent chance of winning but in the FA Trophy Mousehole managed to defy those odds and exit their second cup competition in just a couple of weeks.
The league game against the Robins had been a tight affair where Mousehole were lucky to be ahead at half time but ran out deserved winners. In the repeat fixture Mousehole were lucky to be only one goal down at half time and the second half again saw deserved winners, this time it was Bideford.
A bright start to the match saw Mousehole on top and it was no surprise when they took the lead. It was a beautifully worked goal. A period of sustained pressure saw the green and whites loading the box but there wasn’t much space. Eventually the ball landed at Ed Harrison’s feet on the right corner of the area, he rolled it forward to Gene Price in lots of space. Price steadied himself before delivering a hip high cross along the six-yard line. Hayden Turner flicked his foot and clipped the ball into the far side of the goal.
For the visiting fans this was a lovely moment but sadly it was as good as the day got and the joy itself lasted barely two minutes. The equaliser came in familiar fashion with the Seagulls unable to defend a set piece. On this occasion it was a long throw from our right, Bideford won the first touch and it fell to their man on the edge of the box. He was facing away from goal but managed to swivel and strike perfectly in to the top corner. It was a great finish but the ball shouldn’t have reached him.
Bideford took the lead less than ten minutes later. When a threatening Mousehole attack ended due to a sloppy offside concession the home keeper was unimpeded when sending a searching ball forward. Some really nice work by the reds on the edge of the box bamboozled a back tracking defence and when the ball was relayed to their space-rich centre forward he only needed one touch to move the ball out of his feet before planting it past Ollie Chenoweth.
The rest of the half was about damage limitation and a desperate attempt to keep the difference to just one goal. That Mousehole managed this, playing into a very strong wind was a victory of sorts and the general feeling was that the second half would see the visitors come on strong and snatch the tie.
Those feelings were blown away by a determined home defence who managed to stifle every effort made by Mousehole and restrict them to just two shots in the second half. The first of those, had it gone in, would have been a momentum shifter. Liam Prynn was set free for a one on one, the sort of chance that the strawberry-haired poacher usually gobbles up but here the keeper advanced quickly and smothered the effort.
With time running out Mousehole were caught out by another set-piece, this time a corner, although strictly speaking it wasn’t directly from it. The corner itself was cleared but not far enough and the ball was recycled to the Bideford left wing. He sent in a well-angled cross which was turned home by a centre forward in too much space.
With ten minutes to go Mousehole suddenly awoke and created two great chances but neither was taken and the visiting fans were left to memories of great opening ten minutes.
