Seasiders secure fourth win in five outings over Wendron United at Broadclose Park

SECOND half goals from Jake Woodland and Billy Hopcroft secured the Seasiders a fourth win in five games with a 2-1 success over a young Wendron United outfit at Broadclose Park on Saturday.

Town had the previous weekend off following a disappointing 2-2 draw with Millbrook and boss Steve Hackett was down to the bare bones with eight players missing for various reasons.

Wendron arrived in North Cornwall off the back of an encouraging 1-1 draw at Mousehole in midweek, but it was Bude that started the brighter.

They enjoyed much of the ball in the first half and created four decent chances.

Dylan Morgan couldn’t divert Piran Friend’s driven cross in from the right at the near post, while Harrison Swatton forced a good stop diving away to his right out of the goalkeeper. Woodland and Morgan also failed to get clean strikes away when well-placed inside the box.

However, within a minute of the restart Bude were in front.

Hopcroft found himself in possession just outside of the area and scooped the ball over the defence for the onrushing Woodland to hammer in from six yards.

Not much happened then until the hour when Morgan was brought down in the box, however skipper Harry Hopcroft’s penalty was well-saved diving away to the goalkeeper’s left.

But on the 70th minute the Seasiders doubled their lead. Harry Hopcroft drove forward out of defence and took a shot from 18 yards the right side, and although his effort was saved, brother Billy was on hand to make no mistake from close-range.

Wendron pulled one back within two minutes as a throughball sent the striker away to beat Leam Powell, and that gave the Dron plenty of confidence as they sought a second successive point on their travels, but despite enjoying more possession and promising set-piece positions, Bude held on for all three points ahead of next Saturday’s trip to new boys St Mawgan (3pm).

Boss Steve Hackett felt his side are on the right path having racked up 13 points from the last 15 available.

He said: “To get four wins and a draw in the last five, I’ve got to be delighted, but we won’t be getting carried away and will be focusing on one game at a time.

“We’re going quietly about our business which is important for us and we’ll look forward to a new away day at St Mawgan on Saturday.

“They’re a bit of an unknown quantity to us, but we certainly won’t be underestimating them and will be expecting a tough game, particularly after their result today (a 4-0 success at home to Millbrook).”

Hackett also had words of praise for both goalscorers and left-back Fin Haste.

He concluded: “Fin was superb for us getting up and down his side, while Jake was brilliant in the middle breaking things up and getting us playing, and Billy does what he does with an assist and a goal, so it was a good day for us.”

BUDE TOWN: Leam Powell; Ruan Tape, James Wheeler, Harry Hopcroft (capt), Fin Haste; Jake Woodland, Harry Banks; Piran Friend, Billy Hopcroft, Harrison Swatton; Dylan Morgan. Subs: Steve Hackett, Ryan Leverton, Tornado Bello, Rio Anderson.

Seasiders’ man-of-the-match: Billy Hopcroft.