Gorgeous little village in the middle of nowhere was the venue for the quarter final of the Launceston Cup.
The pitch was narrow but otherwise great. There was a bank (grass) to oneside, a large hedge (which turned out to be the equivalent of the river at Lifton, the ball kept going over it)
The dugouts- 2 tin shelters
The changing rooms
As with every ground we have been to so far, the views have been stunning. Week St Mary was not to disappoint, the village church stood proud overlooking the pitch, the far side had far reaching views up to the north Cornish coast, although the ground had an EX postcode putting it in Devon(Im fairly certain we didnt cross the border-side note-It's in North or North East Cornwall-being a northerner I have no sense of geographical locations)
The facilities were just the essentials, a changing room and a car park.
The ground was a little quirky, in the fact it had a natural grassy bank which acted as a terrace, were, what seemed like the whole village had turned out, stood and cheered and heckled There was a decent crowd, quite possibly the biggest Lifton have played in front of all season
The game started slowly, there wasn;t a great deal of evidence to suggest it was a football match, a hoofball match would have been more apt. 10 Mins in and Lifton scored, Barry Rutherford claiming the honours-sorry Barry I didnt get any eveidence of these great feat as I was looking for spare balls.
Once the first went in, the flood gates began to open with Lifton running out comfortable winners 8-2 (minoir league is never dull), with Ralf getting a hat-trick (although he may claim 4) which was nice as it silenced the natives who had been giving him so stick. However, even with the shoddy camera work, you can see the goalie palms it into the back of the net
Howver there was no disputing the 3rd goal, the first of 2 penalties, Ralf burried the ball in the net despite the keeper guessing the correct way
Moments later, a second penalty was awarded and up stepped captain Sam(who had just returned from a 2 match ban) to put the tie beyond any hope of a shock comeback, although the home side did manage to score a 2nd with about 10mins to go to spark hope of the mother, father and uncle of all comebacks but it was not to be.
Just as a final note from me anyway, as the Week St Mary players were coming off the pitch, one of the players was overheard bemoaning the amount of mistakes they made and Lifton weren't that good of a team, all I can say is the score lines says otherwise....
As a player, I really enjoyed playing on this ground. It was a failry flat surface although, with the dry weather we have had over the last few weeks the ground was quite hard causing the ball to bobble and bounce making it hard to control. The changing rooms were rather small although it did seem bigger on the inside like the tardis from Doctor Who. There was a strong smell of vicks lingering around the changing rooms which was surprising, but it could have smelt worse. It was another good win for the team and it means we are into the semi-finals where we will play Altarnun to see whether we will go to the final. I am happy with my personal performace today even though my left ankle gave way with about 5 minutes to go. When we were awarded the second penalty I thought about trying to take it and have a go myself but the fear ofletting my team down if I missed stopped me from doing so. If I had scored, it would have been my first goal of the season and with not many games to go, I am running out of time to get it. Next Saturday we start are run in to the end of the season with our first of 5 away games to Pensilva. We beat them at home just before the christmas break so hopefully we can snatch another win on their turf.
XT
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