Falmouth Town hard-fought win against Exmouth Town

Falmouth Town maintained their excellent home record this season in front of another large crowd, with an eventful and hard-fought win against high-flying Exmouth Town, who started the day in second place in the league, writes Scott McCormack. 

Falmouth opted to start with Luke Brabyn in a central attacking role and handed a home debut to new signing Fred Walter at right back. The industrious Jack Webber started in midfield with Andy Elcock on the bench.

Cam Hutchison was presented an award before the game for playing his hundredth game for Falmouth Town.

The first-half ended goal-less, which reflected the even nature of the game, with neither side creating any clear-cut chances with the exception of a shot on 43 minutes from Falmouth’s Jared Sims, after great work and a resulting cross from Hutchison down the right. The shot was saved well by Exmouth’s keeper Frankie Phillips at his near post.

Hutchison, Brabyn and Oscar Massey seemed to be playing as a front three, which suited Massey, who seems to thrive when playing more centrally, and this proved to be true later in the game.

The second half was much more dramatic. It started with both sides looking sharper, but after soaking up a period of pressure from Exmouth, it was the hosts that struck first after five minutes.

Falmouth Striker Oscar Massey picked up the ball just inside the Exmouth half and outpaced the visiting defence to create a one-on-one with Phillips, which resulted in a side-foot finish into the corner to make it 1-0.

Ten minutes later and the game took another turn as Falmouth defender Harrison Jewell was given a straight red card following a challenge on an Exmouth forward and a resulting skirmish. Falmouth were forced to make some changes to protect their lead but could only hold out for a further ten minutes as Callum Shipton equalised for the visitors from inside the box.

Exmouth were in the ascendancy but it was Massey again who put Falmouth ahead on 31 minutes. Again picking the ball up from deep, he pushed the ball beyond the Exmouth defence and drove into the box, only to be brought down for a clear penalty.

Massey picked himself to despatch the penalty into the roof of the net to make it 2-1. The experienced Exmouth defence were really struggling Massey’s electric pace.

It was backs to the wall for Falmouth from this point on and Exmouth thought they had levelled it at the death, only for the assistant referee to controversially intervene after a long consultation with the ref. Falmouth held on through eight minutes of injury time to claim the win, to the rapturous applause of the Falmouth faithful.

Falmouth continue their campaign with an away tie at Shaftesbury next Saturday, and they sit just above mid-table in a creditable tenth place on ten points, having played six games and with games in hand on most of the teams above them.

Falmouth Town: Morgan Coxhead, Freddie Walter, Bradley Leivers, Andreas Calleja-Stayne, Tom Annear, Harrison Jewell, Jared Sims, Jack Webber, Luke Brabyn, Oscar Massey, Cam Hutchison. Subs: Rubin Wilson, Kian Thomas, Max Everall, Andrew Elcock, Luke Barner.

Exmouth Town: Frankie Phillips, Jake Llewellyn, Joe Belsten, Oliver Knowles, Louis Morrison, Mike Landricombe©, Aaron Denny, Callum Shipton, Ace High, Thomas Bath, Benjamin Griffin. Subs: Joshua Cann, Karl Riddell, Samuel Haynes, Isaac McCue, David Thomas Thorne.

Referee: Aiden Madden.