REPORT: Flying Fishermen sunk by magnificent Moorlanders

OLLIE Aplin’s first goal in three appearances rounded off a magnificent performance on Wednesday night as Bovey Tracey beat high-flying Brixham 3-1.

Cal Leech and Neil Last found the net either side of a goal from Brixham’s Reece Somers, bringing to an end the Fishermen’s nine-game unbeaten run.

‘Saturday was very good,’ said Bovey boss Will Small. ‘The Dartmouth win put us in good spirits and good momentum coming into this one tonight.’

An entertaining bout saw the Moorlanders race into an early lead. Just four minutes in, sprightly winger Leech netted his third goal in 15 appearances as he swivelled in the penalty area and let fly, with his effort taking a cruel deflection off a defender and looping high over the hapless Grant Fisher in the Brixham net.

‘We were missing Brad [Crocombe] tonight,’ Small continued, ‘who has been a key figure for us and obviously Andy [Davis] going to [Brixham], so we had Chezzy [Chester Walters] come in and for the hour that he played, he did exactly what we wanted; he matched them up in midfield, I gave him a man to mark and a game plan and he stuck to it.’

Five minutes later, the visitors came agonisingly close to drawing level. Sean Adderley and captain Kieron Parkin charged forward on a breakaway and soon found themselves with only goalkeeper Dom Aplin to beat. Adderley carried the ball forward and elected to take the shot on alone, striking the outside of the post as he tried to catch Aplin out on his near side.

Small said: ’There was only one footballing side out there for me - the other side were looking to go more direct, and our centre-halves managed to cope with that all day so it’s a deserved result.’

The squandered chance transpired to be a catalyst for the Fishermen, as they enjoyed a long period of ruthless pressure. Several opportunities went awry, including a goal-mouth scramble heroically blocked off the line.

But the pressure paid off eventually as the plundering took its toll on 37 minutes. A Brixham corner was met by the head of Somers, who nodded home for his third goal of the season.

There was time for one last chance before the break as a characteristic, spellbinding Lewis Perring cross found Mitch Thomas arriving at the far post. Thomas did well to get to the delivery first but could not turn home.

Brixham started fast after the break, and should have pushed their noses in front as Parkin, who had 10 goals in 11 games coming into the tie, managed to beat the offside trap but fired his one-on-one chance straight at Aplin.

On 56 minutes, Bovey retook the lead. A corner was swung in to Last at the far post, and he made no mistake in turning home a free header.

‘I’ve said it all along, even when we had our blip and we lost games,’ Small explained, ‘we’re the best footballing side but we’ve got to match it with work rate and when we do that we’re hard to beat.

‘We can’t do both consistently, but when we do I think we will be up and around there. On our day, I think we can beat anybody - we’ve got the players to beat anybody.’

A bunch of half-chances came and went for both teams as the clock ticked into the dying minutes. Bovey took the ball to the corner flag but only stayed in place for a few moments, as Leech wriggled free of the bullish Brixham challenges and slid a neat ball across the box for potent talisman Aplin to tuck his 12th goal of the campaign into the bottom corner.

In the last action of the match, a bad evening got worse for the guests as Ryan Beattie was given his marching orders.

‘[Discipline] is something we spoke about before the game. In games where we get on the ref’s back and we let the referees decision determine how we go about a game, whereas today we let the ref get on with it, we say nothing, we keep our mouths shut and we get on with whatever decision is given.

‘I thought we did that better than [Brixham] today and they were lucky - there was a couple in there with yellow cards that [the referee] has let go and they were lucky to finish with 10 in the end with some of the tackles that went in.

‘Our lads were very disciplined, very hard-working and we played some good football and scored some very good goals.’

A big week of football at the foot of Hay Tor is only half-finished now, as Bovey Tracey look ahead to a mouth-watering tie on Saturday. Ivybridge Town visit Mill Marsh to take on the Moorlanders for the third time this season, with this occasion contesting the FA Vase First Round Proper.

Small said: ‘[It’s a] cup game, so a change of attention and a free-hit for both sides. Everyone wants to get their name in the hat for the next round.

‘It’s going to be a tough game; they’re the best footballing side we’ve come up against in our league by a long shot. They’ve got a style they want to play - as do we - so it should be a great game for the neutral and hopefully we can keep the run going.

‘Hopefully we can get a decent crowd in. I think anybody who has come tonight has watched a good footballing side and it’s a good advert for football locally and hopefully same again on Saturday when we get a decent crowd in.’