FAV Bovey Tracey V Liskeard 24th August 2024

[Dave]

Match Referee Will Bennett

Referee Assistants Sam Gill & Keith Hawkins

Final Score Bovey Tracey FC 2 Liskeard AFC 1

I had arranged to help a friend in need down in Plymouth today but and the reason I was not covering a game today. As it turned out at lunch time I received a call saying everything was now sorted and so unexpectedly I found myself free to cover a match after all.

All my readers know I love games between Devon and Cornwall teams there was only one place to head and I just had about enough time to get there. As a result this match report will not have the usual match preview that all my reports do.

On the 24th August 2022 I covered Bovey’s FA Vase First Round Qualifying game against Newquay. That season there were 586 clubs participating in the FA Vase and the winners of the First Round Qualifying games received a £550 in prize money and the losing team £160.

This season there are 596 teams that have entered and the prize money is the same as it was two seasons ago. Bovey beat Newquay that day by five goals to nil, they were on fire and I thought Newquay had looked a half decent side.

Last season I covered a preseason friendly between Brixham AFC and Liskeard AFC that ended in a one all draw. They looked a very good side and certainly gave Brixham plenty to think about during the game.

On the 18th February 2023 I covered Bovey Tracey V Liskeard in the quarter final of the Walter C Parson Cup. Bovey were one nil up at halftime but could Liskeard went into overdrive in the second half and scored three goals to win the tie.

In some respects today’s game was very similar. Not a great deal to choose between the two sides in the first half, but Bovey did score two goals to give them a halftime lead, but it was a back to the wall job for them in most of the second half and they stood up to the test.

What I love about this Bovey team is their work rate, they fight for every ball and play as one, and each and every player put in a real shift today and deserved their win in the end. But it was a very nervous last ten minutes of the game for the Bovey fans after Liskeard had pulled a goal back.

The match referee got the game underway and Liskeard were passing the ball well without really creating and real goals scoring chances. Bovey soon started pressing the Liskeard defence high up the pitch and all Liskeard could do was play long hopeful balls up to their front players. Liskeard won the first corner of the match that came to nothing and at this stage I felt is was hard to see where the first goal of the match would come from.

Liskeard won their second corner of the match that was taken short. The ball was then fired high into the box and headed on to the far most where it was met by a first time shot from Darren Hicks but his effort flew over the crossbar.

Liskeard’s Matt Andrew took a good shot from just out side the right hand side of the Bovey box that Rhys Williams in the Bovey goal did well to push over his crossbar.

Bovey won their first corner of the match and as the ball came into the box there was a big shout for hand ball that was not given. Liskeard then gave the ball away cheaply and Jessie Howe played the ball down the right to Kal Swann who beat his man with ease and from the by-line picked out Jessie Howe. A neat dummy by him and Lewis Perring was there to get a shot away that was blocked and then cleared away from the danger area.

Jessie Howe then won the ball and got a shot away from just outside the Liskeard box that was blocked and went behind for a corner. Lewis Perring took the corner and wiped in a great ball towards the back post. Captain Neil Last seemed to have plenty of room and rose well to head the ball home.

Bovey were still making life so difficult for the Liskeard defenders with their high press and then out of the blue came Bovey’s second goal of the match and what a goal it was. Bovey won the ball on the halfway line and from the edge of the centre circle Neil Last looked up and spouted the Liskeard off his line. From forty yards out he struck for goal. From my angle it looked as if the keeper got a hand on the ball, but anyway the ball ended up hitting the underside of the crossbar and crossing the goal line, maybe off the keeper’s body?

Just before the halftime break a Liskeard long down the left found James Lorenz, he cut back inside to the edge of the Bovey box and got a shot away that went wide of the right hand post. That was it for the first half with Bovey winning the game by two goals to nil.

Liskeard stated the second half as I expected them too, Will Gilbert got a shot away inside the Bovey box that was blocked on route, the ball came back to the edge of the box to Ben Collins who fired his effort over the crossbar.

Ben Collins then had another chance from just outside the Bovey box his low shot just went wide of the left hand post. But Bovey so nearly came so close to adding to their lead. A great battling run by Lewis Perring who played in Kai Swann who hit a great shot at goal that forced Lory Harvey into making the save of the match.

Liskeard played a good low box towards the back post and Dan Jennings looked like me might score but put his effort around the post and behind for a goal kick. Liskeard were pressing hard by the Bovey defence was standing strong. Liskeard won another corner and from the edge of the box Darren Hicks got a good shot away that was saved well low down by the left hand post by Rhys Williams.

Liskeard then got the goal their hard worked deserved. A low ball from the right was fired into the Bovey box, my view was blocked so I did not see who got the final touch. Could Bovey hold on and stop Liskeard getting a second goal that might have taken the game into a penalty shoot-out?

Lewis Perring bolted down the left hand side and cut inside close to the by –line, he got a shot away that crashed into the post and out for a throw-in.

Liskeard won a number of dangerous free kicks out on the left hand side that they wasted. The first one with plenty off men in the box was fired high over the cross bar. The next one was better but a Liskeard player pushed over a Bovey defender in the box.

Bovey then gave away another needless free kick that so nearly proved costly for them, but in the end the ball was grabbed low down by the keeper when it looked like it could have gone anywhere.

Bovey still looked dangerous when they were able to create a breakaway, but Liskeard were ramping up the pressure another notch and even my nerves were starting to jangle a bit.

Liskeard then missed the best chance they had to get back onto level terms. Sub Fin Bartlett just yards from goal maybe should have scored, but to be fair Rhys Williams made a great save low down.

In the drying minutes Liskeard won two corners on the trot, the second one found its way to Cameron Patterson whose shot was well blocked by a Bovey defender.

The match referee blew up for the end of the match, Bovey deserved their win but credit must also be given to the Liskeard players for all their hard work and effort in the second half.

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