By Kevin Marriott

WESTERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION

Helston Athletic 4 Saltash United 0 Helston maintained their three-point lead over neighbours Falmouth at the top of the table on Saturday with a comfortable victory over manager Matt Cusack’s former club.

There were no signs of nerves from the Blues as they swept aside the struggling Ashes, whose manager Macca Brown must be sick of the sight of two of his former Millbrook players.

Midfielder Tom Payne helped himself to two goals, while striker Rikki Shepherd got his obligatory goal against Saltash, with Jacob Smith adding the other.

Brown said: “The score is a fair reflection I think. We were nowhere near it and Helston were impressive, so it was one-way traffic to be honest from the word go.

“In the team talk we talked about how it was important to make it uncomfortable for them as the pressure was there, and not to give them a ‘gimme’, but that’s exactly how it turned out in the end. 

“In the first half we defended well, we were well organised and frustrated them but it certainly wasn’t the gameplan to be so deep and spend most of the first 45 minutes in a low block, the game settled into that for a number of reasons.

“Firstly, Helston showed good patience and weren’t wasteful at all so were able to keep the ball for long spells, and when we won the ball back our quality or decision making was really poor, so we kept handing back the ball to Helston and that was our biggest issue.“We are normally really dangerous on

the counter attack, but that wasn’t really the case yesterday and we just couldn’t get that first pass out with any quality to have a spell of possession ourselves. 

“In hindsight I think we possibly set up in the wrong shape, it has served us well in recent games but Helston are a different proposition and they outnumbered us centrally and that allowed them to dominate more than we would have liked.

“However, we were calm at half-time, because despite wanting more with the ball we were doing a reasonable job, we demanded more quality in possession in the second period and unfortunately it just didn’t come.

“When it goes 2-0 it’s a challenge but we knew a goal could change things. At that point we tweaked things slightly and then started to look a lot more dangerous, creating some good openings and causing their back four some problems. 

“But one thing we’ve unfortunately been very good at this season is handing teams goals on a plate, and that’s what we did for the final two which made the scoreline really frustrating.

“We were caught in possession and we were then punished to make it 3-0, and then similarly for the fourth when we had to give away a foul after poor play.

“But full credit to Helston, when the game is on 3G you never know how it’ll go when you play on it in a one-off for both teams.

“I did think it would help us but that was also true for Helston who were flawless in possession really, and the league table tells you they’re a better team than us and that was certainly the case yesterday.”

The Cornish derby was switched to the all weather pitch at Coach Road, Newton Abbot, because Helston’s Kellaway Park was waterlogged.

SALTASH UNITED: J Duffey, B Goulty, E Wright, E Goodman (J Kelsey 77), T Badcott, L Murray, T Love-Holmes, B Fowles, J Curtis (T Huyton 65), J Toulson (N Salop 85), J Preece. Subs not used: J Jefford, F Tolcher.