Millwey Rise beaten at Newton St Cyres

With three of their regular players missing Millwey struggled to play very much cohesive football. Too many times relying on the long ball to Hoole who was well shackled by the home sides back four.

St Cyres took the lead in the eighth minute with Ben Parnell finishing his clever run into the area with a well taken goal.

Both sides strove for mastery in the mid-field, but the game became very scrappy and littered with mistakes. In the 20th minute Hoole had the home keeper stretching to keep out a header and, five minutes later put the ball into the net from a penalty awarded for handball which brought the scores level.

Within a few minutes the home side moved into the lead when Millwey were again plagued by their inability to clear goalmouth scrambles. Instead of a defender putting his laces through the bobbling ball it was allowed to fall to Ben Parnell who doubled his tally with the easiest of chances. The goal of the game came in the 30th minute when young Jack Farrant cracked the ball home with a left foot volley to level the score going into the break.

Early in the second half Millwey introduced Henry Alexander Mitchell to replace Tyler Allen in mid-field as both sides struggled for the winner. After 60 minutes another defensive error led to Reece Beauchamp beating keeper Hoole to clinch it for St Cyres. Alex Rocket who was making a welcome return after injury gave way to Jack Bennet. In a final frenetic quarter Millwey got the ball into the net only for the home linesman to judge it had previously gone out of play.

Sam Burke’s perpetual motion was a great example to the rest of the team. Tyler Warren’s distribution set up several opportunities and Zak Meeker and Haydn Lewis worked hard in defence. The absence of Shayne Featherstone, Sam Turner and Matty Lewis was a blow to the first game of the New Year.

On Saturday (January 14), Millwey face a touch task as they travel to high fliers Crediton (3pm).