Falmouth Town 0 - Cinderford Town 1

Bottom of the league club Cinderford emerged the winners in this tight affair at Bickland Park in front of another 400+ crowd, writes Scott McCormack.

This was Cinderford’s second visit to Falmouth this season after having been beaten 3-0 in the FA Trophy in August.

Falmouth rang the changes again after their win against Newquay in the Cornwall Senior Cup on Wednesday with captain Tom Annear returning to the starting line-up along with Jared Sims.  Rubin Wilson kept his place after his two goals.

The game started off with neither side dominating and no clear chances were created for either side until 22 minutes when Cinderford’s Alex Knight missed a very good headed opportunity from in right front of goal.

Within a minute, Falmouth's Luke Barner saw his overhead kick go wide from an Oscar Massey Rabona cross which would have ranked amongst the most spectacular goals of the season.

Massey received what looked like a harsh booking on 34 minutes for simulation when he drove into the box and sprinted past his defender, only to appear to have been barged off the ball, with the crowd baying for a penalty. 

The game now started to open up and, on 36 minutes, two almost identical balls over the top of the Falmouth defence were both not capitalized upon by Cinderford's Alex Bonthron - although Falmouth Keeper Morgan Coxhead came off his line well both times to unsettle the forward.

The half finished with a Massey run at the visiting defence but his powerful shot cleared the bar and it was 0-0 at the break.

Cinderford were arguably getting on top as the second half progressed and 19 minutes in Cinderford's Joshua Jones hit the bar from a speculative cross/shot - the ball looping up over Coxhead and landing on top of the crossbar.

With the game looking like it was heading for a 0-0 draw, Cinderford struck the killer blow ten minutes from time when Bonthron rose at the far post to head in after a great cross from the right touch-line.

Falmouth made some changes with Marcello Jones and Andy Elcock being introduced and the latter started to have an impact as Falmouth tried to play through their midfield, instead of the mainly direct nature of their previous play. The intensity was upped but no clear chances were created and Cinderford survived to record a great win to aid their survival chances.

Falmouth now sit only one point above the relegation zone as they continue their winless recent run, having lost five and drawn one of their last six games.