WHILE a goalless draw does not sound like the most thrilling start to a new season, it was certainly a fascinating one.

Both Falmouth Town and Mousehole played some lovely football at times, both in terms of attack and defence, but neither were able to put it in the back of the net.

A pleasing point

A goalless draw is always a little bit frustrating - you’ve done well enough to close your opponents out but weren’t able to make the most of that by just sticking one chance away.

But Town can certainly look at this as a very useful result. Mousehole have been tipped by many to be in and around the top places this season despite last night’s game being their first at Step 6.

It was only an hour or so before kick-off that the club tweeted the news that one of their players, Hamza Kaid, has signed a full-time professional contract at Colchester United, so they clearly have a very strong, talented squad at Trungle Parc.

The Seagulls were rampant at the back end of last season, winning six of their last 13 league games by six or more goals, scoring 64 in total across those 13 games - an average of just a fraction under five goals per game.

Those games may have been against weaker sides than Falmouth, but it does make last night’s clean sheet look like a very handy one.

Defensive promise

With stats like the above, you could anticipate that Mousehole would be rather lively going forward, and they certainly were. The Seagulls are blessed with plenty of talent going forward, including 23-year-old Reece Mitchell, who has scored twice in the English Football League for Chesterfield and had a fine game on the left flank. Amara Bakayoko was equally lively on the other side, and missed a big chance to score when he cut inside and curled a shot inches wide.

But the Falmouth defence stood firm and largely kept their opponents quiet. Town had four different fullbacks throughout the course of the game, and each of David Blizzard, Ollie Moody, Jack Webber and Martyn Duff did their job well.

Ben Oliver made his debut in central defence alongside the dependable captain Joe Cooper, with both men looking dominant in the air throughout.

On the occasions that the visitors did break through and get a shot on target, they were still unable to find a way past Steve Parker-Billinge. The goalkeeper, who has signed as cover for first-team ‘keeper Ryan Barnes while he is on holiday during August, made several important saves on his Town debut and can lay claim to having played a big role as Falmouth kept their opponents at bay.

Three golden chances

Although Falmouth had their work cut out defensively, they still had chances of their own to collect all three points.

Their three best chances a came in the last 20 minutes: the first of which came from an unlikely source in Ryan Martt. The versatile defender/midfielder has just one competitive goal for Town since joining two years ago, but had a great chance to double his tally when the ball dropped down to him inside the box. Unfortunately, the ball sat up just a little too much and he was unable to stop the ball from flying over the crossbar.

The second fell to David Broglino, who picked up the ball about 30 yards from goal and sent a howitzer of a strike towards Cory Harvey's goal, with the 'keeper having to make a top acrobatic save to stop the shot from dipping underneath his crossbar.

The best was saved until last, however, with Matt Buchan finding himself in the right place at the right time in the 86th minute. A quick through ball set the striker away on his own, but he could not poke it past the onrushing Harvey.

F-Troop returns

A quick shout-out to the F-Troop, who were back out in force for the opening game of the season. The Town supporters clapped, chanted and sang their way through the 90 minutes. They made a good fist of the Viking thunderclap, made famous by Iceland's fans in Euro 2016, and even let off a smoke bomb at one point that engulfed half of the pitch, although it soon dissipated.

They can be a controversial bunch, especially after chip-gate at Helston a couple of weeks ago, but they do add an atmosphere.

Next up

Falmouth now have a ten-day wait for their second league match of the season, when they make the trip to St Dennis. Last night’s match would have taken place this weekend as is normal, but was brought forward due to a few players attending the Boardmasters festival, which was subsequently cancelled on Tuesday night.

St Dennis will probably be seen as one of Falmouth’s better chances of three points this year, but Town did have trouble overcoming them in their Senior Cup second round tie at Bickland last season, relying on a late David Broglino goal to send them through.