The Fishermen put themselves among the front runners for the Westinsure Cornwall Senior Cup with an unconvincing win against Carlsberg South West Peninsula League Division One (west) strugglers Millbrook.

The result puts Port into the last eight of the competition and they will rate their chances of progressing far with only Saltash capable of providing them with higher league opposition.

However, if they play like they did on Saturday then Port’s chances of winning will be drastically reduced.

Having already beaten Millbrook 7-1 in the league this season, Porthleven looked casual at times and but for a poorly taken visitors’ penalty in the second-half the result could have been different.

The game was in fact in jeopardy, early on Saturday morning, as constant rain fall overnight had left the pitch in a soggy condition.

However, groundsman Derek Richards was up at 6am in the morning attempt to get the playing surface in a suitable condition and following a pitch inspection at 9.30am the game was back on.

Very few chances were created in the first half as the play got bogged down in a mediocre midfield battle. Porthleven were dominating possession as well as the match but when Darren Burchell and Jamie Thirkle combined to set up Kevin Lawrence he fired over. Porthleven did take the lead on 20 minutes when a cross by Burchell was knocked down in the area by Young allowing Lee Bradd to fire the ball in from close range.

This was expected to be the launch pad that would allow the Fishermen to open the flood gates to and go onto a comfortable win.

However, these gates remained firmly locked as Porthleven struggled to find they key passes in the final third to but the game beyond Millbrook.

Missing the cup tied Stuart Reynolds and injured Mike Vains up front the home side struggled to create any further chances in the first half as they battled with a lone striker formation.

As a result they nearly paid the price for their lack of a cutting edge early in the second period when Wayne Brown tripped Lance Easton as he ran into the box.

However, Danny Burrows, who had been reasonably quiet up until that point managed to block a very poor spot-kick from Adam Casey. This miss was to prove costly for the visitors as three minutes later Thirkle broke down the right beat two defenders before squaring the ball to Lawrence who placed his shot into the back of the net.

Thirkle then went on another run before setting up Steve Warr who put his shot the wrong side of the post.

Porthleven were now beginning to get on top of the game and should have gone 3-0 up when Josh Kemp fired over and then Thirkle shot wide.

Matt Laity was then brought on, for Martin Day, for his first appearance for the club have been out of the game for a couple of years with cruciate ligament damage.

Danny Williams and then Lawrence both missed chances before a corner by Burchell, was headed back across goal by Lawrence where Williams scored with a close range header at the far post.

Porthleven will be at home to Truro City next Saturday at 3pm.