TWO goals in six first half minutes set Mount Gould on their way to a 3-0 victory over Liverton United in their Devon Premier Cup semi-final at the Halford Ground on Wednesday.

Adam Carter and David Moore both found the net early on for the Plymouth-based side, with substitute Owen Pritchard wrapping things up in injury time after a brighter second half from the hosts.

It took just four minutes for Carter to have his first clear sight of goal – the striker shooting straight at keeper Nial Herbert from a free-kick.

Arguably Liverton’s best chance of the first half came from just outside their own half. Neil Last spotted visiting custodian Dean Turner off his line, but his effort from miles out went just the wrong side of the crossbar.

Five minutes later and the defending champions has their second of the match. Moore found himself completely unmarked from a corner and sent a free header past Herbert.

The Liverton keeper was called into action 10 minutes before half-time to smartly deny Carter from a tight angle and make sure his side only trailed by two at the turn.

John Fleet’s men looked brighter after the interval as the sides cancelled each other out, before the game reached is first real flashpoint on the hour mark.

Tempers initially flared after Herbert was caught late, and following a stoppage the two sides came to blows again in the very next phase of play.

An incident involving Tom Shwenn and a fired-up Taylor Scarff led to another scuffle, with Scarff eventually leaving the field for some treatment to his ankle.

Once things had calmed down again, Liverton missed a chance to get back into the game when James Thomas could only scuff his finish on 68 minutes.

Good work by Last produced another couple of half chances, but Pritchard was on hand to fire into an empty net during time added on after Herbert came for the ball and missed it.

After the match, Fleet admitted that his side simply didn’t create enough to win the match.

‘I felt like we were on the back foot to start with,’ he explained. ‘We perhaps gave them a bit too much respect and could’ve pressed a little bit higher.

‘With that, we have away two soft goals. One sloppy pass gave the first away and the other came direct from a corner. That just put us on the back foot for the rest of the game.

‘They managed the game well – a lot of niggly fouls from both teams and some time-wasting. They did that well, to be fair.’

And he added: ‘It’s maybe a little bit disappointing that we didn’t give as good as we got, especially early in the game.

‘It’s easy when you’re 2-0 down and someone kicks you to give a bit back, but really you want to be getting into them a bit right at the start and setting the tone. We didn’t really do that until midway through the second half.

‘I thought it was a pretty awful game to watch to be honest. It was dire. It didn’t really seem like anything happened in the second half, it was just a bit of a nothing match. We didn’t really do enough or create enough to get back into it.’

Liverton overturned a three-goal half-time deficit to win their quarter final against Kentisbeare, and Fleet said his side had that same belief in this match.

‘The next goal was crucial, really,’ he explained. ‘We all came out thinking that we could get back into it – we just needed to get onto the front foot.

‘All season we’ve been lacking a goalscoring centre-forward and that showed again tonight. We just didn’t have that.

‘It’s something to look at over the summer, I think. That’s the one position we really need.’

The result means that Mount Gould will face Buckland Athletic Reserves in the final of the Devon Premier Cup at Coach Road on Saturday, June 26 (2pm).