Magpies pay for poor second half in Cally defeat

HOLSWORTHY failed to beat one of the league’s heavy-hitters for the third straight week as a hard-working Callington Town side edged a close contest 2-1 at Upcott Field on Saturday.

The hosts went into the game off the back of an impressive 1-1 draw with title-hopefuls Penzance a week earlier, but were missing some key players including midfield lynchpin Rory Simmons. However, they did give debuts to left-back George King and attacker Ollie Curry.

Young attacker Gabe Rutter had an early effort saved by Cally’s Jake Mead-Crebbin before the visitors, who had won their last five in the league, went close 12 minutes in when Callum McDonnell’s long-range shot was well tipped over by Ryan Chadwick.

Holsworthy continued to more than match their visitors as frontman Ben Sharpe sent a snapshot just over before Jay Thomas’ cross from the right clipped the outside of the near post.

Both teams huffed and puffed until the break, but the Pastymen were in front two minutes after the break as a run forward ended in a penalty that midfielder Kieran Ryall converted.

Holsworthy then bizarrely reverted to their old ‘hoofball’ style as Cally took control, and the Cornish outfit got a deserved second 14 minutes from time when good work by Callum McDonnell ended with fellow midfielder Calum Courts slotting in.

Skipper Jedd Peschke pulled one back on 82 minutes with a volley from set-piece, but Callington held on for a deserved three points.

Reflecting on the afternoon, home boss Kevin Squire admitted their second half performance wasn’t good enough.

He said: “It was a close game. Callington are a good team and we knew what they’d bring with some good quality in forward areas, they’re physical and compete well all over the pitch. First half we matched that up quite well, but second half I don’t think we gave a good account of that.”

He continued: “First half was nip and tuck, they didn’t create a lot, we didn’t create a lot but we were doing well, we were close. We looked like we were on the edge of doing well.

We got into some good areas but just that missing that final bit of quality, but competing all over. We weren’t great the first 10 minutes but after that we were competing and well in the game. At half-time, maybe I gave a bit too much credit to the players. But in the second half we’ve gone out there and it was flat, it just wasn’t right.

“We’ve passed it poorly from the back which hasn’t given a platform to our attacking players to build or create anything, and we we were poor. I don’t coach my players just to boot the ball and I saw too much of that.

“We had a bit of pressure in the last 10 minutes, but it wasn’t through any quality, it was just through long balls and picking up second balls, and even then we didn’t do that well. Overall I was quite happy with the first half but the second half just wasn’t right.”

HOLSWORTHY: Ryan Chadwick; Jeff Anglia, Jedd Peschke (capt), Callum Martyn, George King; Gavin Carter, Jay Thomas, Josh Down, Gabe Rutter; Ollie Curry, Ben Sharpe. Subs: Chris Wildern, George Plumb, Joel Greening.