REPORT: Hill's haul tramples Teigns' dreams

LEWIS Hill’s four-goal haul saw Willand Rovers comfortably into the final of the Devon St Luke’s Challenge Cup as they thrashed Teignmouth 6-0 at Silver Street on Wednesday night.

Step Six side Teignmouth valiantly matched Willand – two leagues their superiors – for 30 minutes until Ben Griffith opened the floodgates. Hill netted four times and Ollie Bray got in on the act as well.

‘I think there was probably a difference in levels tonight. I think the scoreline was perhaps a little flattering and it’s disappointing because first half we were tight and we were in it,’ said Teignmouth boss Liam Jones. 

‘We have to be proud of this side that with our resources, we’re competing in the Peninsula League, reached the quarter-final of the league cup and semi-final of this one; it’s a huge achievement. We’ve been on a bit of a run and it’s not the result we wanted but I can’t fault the lads, they’ve given me everything and we’ve just come up a bit short but that’s why there’s a difference in levels.’

After an entertaining first half-hour in which both goalkeepers made a series of spectacular saves, a pair of controversial goals put the hosts two to the good at the half-time interval. Griffith opened the scoring with a fine finish across the face of goal on the counterattack before a quick free-kick found Hill in position to curl a superb finish past off-guard ‘keeper Zach Lee from the edge of the box.

‘The first goal has come from the referee missing a penalty,’ Jones said. ‘He’s owned up to that at half-time, which is disappointing because we’re a goal down when we should have had a penalty. 

‘And then we went 2-0 because he’s asked to speak to one of our players and then let play go on while he’s talking to our player, so they’re disappointing but I don’t think they’ve affected it overall. 

‘It’s one of them where if we go in having scored a penalty or at 0-0 it’s a different second half and we don’t have to chase it but ultimately the last 30 minutes showed why they are two leagues above where we are at. They were very clinical in front of goal and well worth the win in the end.’

Lee, who had a great game between the sticks despite leaking six, made a stunning double save to keep the deficit down to two going into the break.

‘I said to the lads at half-time that I don’t think we are savvy enough, which we need to get cuter at,’ explained Jones. 

‘Unfortunately, it’s a difficult thing to teach; you either have it or you don’t, and if you have got it you’re probably not playing at this level for free, so that’s a difficult one to try and get in on the players. We just need to be cuter; even though we should’ve had that penalty, we left ourselves two-on-two at the back and the second goal we’ve not arranged anything in Joner’s absence. 

‘We’re a bit naive, I think, but that comes with young players. We’ve got a very young squad, and as they get older and they get better they’ll probably leave the club, so it’s one of those where you’ve just got to take a bit of that.’

But things got ugly after the interval. Six minutes after the break, Hill had his second as he scrambled home a square ball from Griffith.

Five minutes after that, Hill chalked up his hat-trick as a deftly scooped delivery over the last defender landed at his feet and he stroked home from close range.

Winger Bray netted a goal of his own on 72 minutes with a thundering effort before Hill netted his fourth in injury-time as a ball was slid across the mouth of goal for an easy tap-in from close range.

‘There’s probably a level of relief that the game is over because it was one-way traffic for a period of time at the end,’ said Jones. ‘I said to the lads after the game that the difference is how clinical you are in the box and they’ve had some chances. I said second half to keep tight and stay together and we might nick something and open the game up but they scored two quick-fire goals and that’s game over. 

‘We had some good chances in the first half but we weren’t quite clinical enough and we’ve subsequently been punished. But there’s a difference in levels, there’s a difference in resources and there’s a difference in what we will attract in a player, and those are the fine margins. 

‘Between the two boxes, there’s probably not much of a difference but the difference inside the boxes was quite substantial come the end.

‘We should [take positives forward from the game] because we’ve got a good side,’ Jones continued. ‘We should be proud of the side we’ve put together. The lads want to be together, they’re fully committed and they give me everything they’ve got, so it’s something that we can certainly build on but we’ve got to make sure that we actually learn from our mistakes, what we can’t do is make the same mistakes week-in, week-out and think anything’s gong to change. 

‘We’ve got to put things right and we’ve got to act upon it; if we do those things we’ll grow from it.’