Match Report

Grampound 6-0 St Teath Res.

17 August 2024
St Piran League

After being relegated last season, Grampound started their campaign in St Piran League Division 4 East  at home against St Teath. Grampound had a very good pre-season and have built good foundations on and off the field. Grampound went into this game with good wins against Indian Queens, Probus, Chacewater and Falmouth Athletic and losing to two very good sides in Saltash 3rds and Stithians which were higher league teams and were a very good test for our boys.  Grampound started this game off very slowly and took 15-20 minutes to settle into the game, a mixture of nerves and excitement some would say. Injuries to captain Adam Williams really didn’t help matters but being the committed el capitano he is, he played when perhaps he shouldn’t have.  Adam came off and was replaced by new signing Liam  Patterson and the flow of the game changed immediately. Kiall Maugham picked up the ball and made a run down the left but was brought down before he entered the box and a free kick was given. Kiall took a quick short free kick with the gaffer Martin Lloyd telling him to pass the ball to Dean Dunn on the edge where he unleashed a low powerful drive into the far bottom corner of the goal to make the score 1-0.  This is exactly what the sky blues needed and it built up the confidence in the side that was missing at the start, minutes later Kiall got on the ball again and scored one of the goals of the game running across the field taking on 6-7 players and smashing the ball across the keeper to make the score 2-0.   About 5 minutes later Grampound were flying and Kiall was starting to pull the strings finding Keegan Lloyd with a decent pass. Keegan doing what Keegan does rolled and weaved in and out of players like they weren't there and sent a powerful strike hard and low into the back of the net to make it 3-0.  At this point St teath had no answers and seemed to have no clue on what to do to turn the tables as the Grampound squad was running riot.  Grampound’s midfield 3 of Joe Dunn, Dean Dunn and Matt Dark started to take charge of the game and they were running the show. Dean Dunn found himself over a free kick in the opposition half on the left hand side and floated a lovely ball towards the back post where he found Callum Hennessy  who some how managed a half turn half volley and found the back of the net.  Scoreline 4-0 and pretty much game over going in at half time.
In the second half Grampound lost a little momentum and took a little time to get going again, defending really well when needed but never really looking in trouble, Deano again got on the ball in the midfield and played a long ball over the top for the on running Keegan who collided with the defender and went down. The ref pointed at the spot after checking both players were ok. Some people would say he has been watching too many videos with how many times he rolled around the floor to get into the box. Anyway with Keegan seeing stars after hitting his head, up stepped our second choice penalty taker Deano to smash home the penalty for what was his second goal of the game. Grampound 5-0 up so gaffer Lloydie made some changes. On come Hayden Bateswho could consider himself very unlucky to be on the bench so had the fire in his legs to make a difference and that he did with his non-stop running and battling down the right side. Keegan picked the ball up on the left hand side and drifted into the centre of the pitch doing what he does taking on players again with his attacking presence and got on the half way line, spotted the run from Hayden and picked him out with the pass of the game dropping a delightful ball over the centre half’s head where Hayden killed the ball with a perfect first touch and slotted the ball past the onrushing keeper to make it 6-0 and seal the win. St teath competed well at times and near the end had a brilliant shot saved superbly by our number 1 Mark Roch in goal,  tipping over the bar. Manager Martin Lloyd was very happy with his side's performance with shout outs to things that go a little unnoticed, firstly being Greg who washed the kit this week and spent hours hand scrubbing the kit to get out stains for our first league game and for helping organise it for the boys to walk into the changing room, all hung up and looking mint!! Also to Allan for everything he does behind the scenes for the club, he might moan but he definitely had a smile on his face after this result, Happy chairman I would say. Overall it was a very good team/ squad performance and players actually played as a team which is what we need to do every single week to push on and compete. We move onto the next one against Kilkhampton 2nds next week and hopefully will see our 2 new signings. Stay calm, stay humble and take 3 points!!