Carlsberg South West Peninsula League division one West

Perranporth 2

Okehampton Argyle 1

ARGYLE gave a good account of themselves in this tough away match against last season's division one West champions and were desperately unlucky not to come away with a point.

With both managers away on holiday and top scorer Frankie Nomah-Koneh unavailable, the squad, including three 16 year-olds, put in a tremendous performance under Steve Ausden and Neil Clift. Argyle were further hampered when influential midfielder Ed Squire had to be taken off after 10 minutes with a hamstring injury. This saw a rearranged defence with Dale Chadwick being pushed forward into midfield and Dan Johnston coming on to play in the back four.

Okehampton had the better of the first 25 minutes and were unlucky not to take the lead after good efforts from James Williams and Ben Waters went close. Argyle had Harry Geering to thank for keeping them in the game with two superb saves as Perranporth threatened on the break. Both saves brought applause from the sporting home supporters.

The home side took the lead on 28 minutes with a soft goal. A long ball played into the Okes' box saw the Argyle defence hesitate and Perranporth's Craig Barclay poked the ball home from just inside the box. Argyle came back and continued to impress but were unable to get that last touch into the home net.

Perranporth enjoyed more possession in the second half and after 76 minutes increased their lead when another long ball was only parried by Geering into the path of Mikey Davies who netted into an open goal.

However, Okehampton came back strongly in the last 10 minutes and Ben Waters powered home a firm header to reduce the arrears on 85 minutes, before both substitute Corey Burns and Ben Ferguson brought tremendous saves out of home keeper Ben Mitchell in the last five minutes.

Argyle won the admiration of the Perranporth supporters for the quality of their football and their fighting spirit and the match was a fine display of positive attacking soccer.

Both sides played their part in producing a sporting encounter that was well refereed by Mr Cornish from Wadebridge.

For Okehampton, left back Alex Wren had an outstanding game and other strong performances were put in by Sam Brooks, Dale Chadwick and Ben Waters. Sixteen year-olds Luke Alden and substitutes Corey Burns and Brad Ausden all played above their years and showed that they are ready to mix it at this level of senior football.