CSWPL premier division
Ivybridge Town 1,
Ivybridge Town will be searching for their first home points of the season tomorrow when they tackle Godolphin Atlantic at Erme Valley in a 3pm kick-off.
With both sides finishing in the top seven last season, Town know they will have to be on top of their game to get a positive result. The players will be hoping to put the disappointment of their last home fixture behind them and keep moving up the table.
Town general manager Brian Howard confessed he was disappointed with his side’s eventful first league game, which saw Launceston beat the Bridgers 1-2 at Erme Valley.
The game saw a missed penalty from the normally reliable Todd Hanrahan and a red card for defender Josh Zimmerman as Ivybridge looked a little rusty in what was their first competitive outing.
They went behind with fewer than five minutes played when the defence was caught napping from a throw-in and the Launceston player scored at the second time of asking after ‘keeper Josh Oak saved well from the initial shot.
Ivybridge should twice have equalised before the break, but just couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net.
Firstly they won a penalty with 25 minutes gone, only for Hanrahan to see his tame effort saved by the ‘keeper. A quarter of an hour later, Mike Smith chose to go for goal from a tight angle when a square ball would have given any of two or three supporting players an easy tap-in, so Town remained one down at the half-time whistle.
Midfielder Lee Doel deserves most of the plaudits for the equalising goal, which came five minutes into the second half.
His persistence saw him create space for Smith to fire home from eight yards and bring Ivybridge deservedly level.
The second half was again a reasonably even affair, but on 70 minutes Ivybridge defender Josh Zimmerman incurred the wrath of the referee when a stray elbow earned him a red card, an incident described as unfortunate by Howard.
Five minutes later Town’s problems increased when the visitors somewhat fortuitously conjured what would be the winner when a routine cross caught Oak out of position and nestled in the back of the net.
Reflecting on the game, Howard said: ‘It was a disappointing start, we definitely deserved something from the game.
‘We didn’t play our best after a fairly decent preseason, but we just have to try and bounce back. We kept hold of all our players except Callum Martindale and made a couple of good signings, so hopefully we can do well this season.’
The Bridgers got back to winning ways on Tuesday evening when they chalked up their first away victory of the campaign by beating Exmouth Town 2-1.