Bristol Manor Farm 0 – 2 Mousehole
For the third time this season Mousehole lined up against Bristol Manor Farm. Honours were even over two games at Trungle Parc with the Seagulls winning the league tussle three nil and the Farm triumphing in the FA Trophy by two goals to nil. Much has happened since the league meeting at the start of November, including the ground now being called Interiora Parc, and the travelling fans knew that a win here would see Mousehole firmly in the play-off places.
We’ve hit the part of the season where most pitches are flattened mud with the odd blade of grass so once again it promised not to be a footballing fest. Mousehole have become used to adapting their style for less grassy pitches but had not won away at a top ten side for a long while and the opening exchanges were pretty even. Neither side had created a clear-cut opening before Mousehole took the lead after twenty one minutes.
It came from a slick move started by a short pass by James Ward to Ryan Barrett on the right. He curled a long pass deep into enemy territory for Hayden Turner to latch on to. Ending up wider than he probably wanted to he was faced up by the BMF left back. Turner took a touch, looked up and saw Oscar Massey arriving at pace in to the box. He drilled the ball to the mop-topped forward who cushioned it with his right instep whilst pirouetting away from a bamboozled defender. This opened up the path to goal with the keeper expecting a shot to his right but Massey doesn’t always do the expected and slammed it to the keeper’s left. One nil, and just about deserved.
Bristol created and spurned two chances before the interval. The first was a long-range effort pulled wide but the second was much closer. The referee saw a tussle between Medo Konté and one of their forwards near the edge of the box. It was hand bags at dawn with neither seemingly more aggressive than the other but the official saw fit to book our lanky left back and award a free kick to the home team about twenty-five yards out.
The wall looked good, Ollie looked ready, but a free kick of a quality out of keeping with much else that the home side had henceforth served up boomeranged round the wall and hit the inside of the post with Ollie looking nervous. It rebounded at pace away from the goal much to Mousehole’s defence’s relief.
One up at half time seemed just about right but the Seagulls knew that the second half would start with a barrage. A forward led from the wing by ex-Mouse Evander Grubb showed a bit of spirit as the half started but did not threaten Ollie’s goal with anything serious.
All the good chances were falling to the team in the white and green and when Tim Nixon hit the post it only seemed a matter of when not if the lead would be doubled. The second duly arrived ten minutes in to the half.
Jack Calver, from the left, played a long cross field pass to Ryan Barrett. He controlled it and played it through to Jack Symons running clear of a static defence. He took a small touch to take it out of his feet and shot but the Bristol keeper managed to get his body in the way. He wasn’t able hold onto the ball and it rebounded out to a loitering Massey just outside the box. One soft touch to bring it down was followed by a crashing shot into the roof of the net. The boy doesn’t score tap ins!
Two nil, game over. There were no scares to threaten the clean sheet, three in three games now, and the three points were in the bag. The final bit of action was the unfortunate sending off of Medo for a second bookable offence. In 1970 it might not have been a foul but Medo’s dad wasn’t even born then so sadly in 2025 his tackle which took the ball first followed by a follow through taking the man saw him take an early bath.
That was merely a side note to a great afternoon where three more points were won on the road.
