Westgarth's Street Reaction

By Max Goodman

2nd May 2023 | Local Sport

Falmouth Town finished off the season with a draw at Bickland Park (Image: Falmouth Town)
Falmouth Town finished off the season with a draw at Bickland Park (Image: Falmouth Town)

Words provided by Matt Friday

Falmouth Town manager Andrew Westgarth was delighted to clinch a seventh-place finish in the Western League Premier Division following their goalless draw at home to Street in their final game of the season on Saturday.

Needing to match eighth-placed Shepton Mallet's result at home to Helston Athletic to secure seventh spot in their first Western League campaign since 1983, Town had Blues forward Nathanael West to thank with the Helston man heading in the only goal of that game four minutes from time.

That meant a draw for Town would definitely be enough to clinch seventh, and Westgarth's side had to settle for a point at Bickland Park after being thwarted by a stubborn Street defence that extended their run of successive clean sheets to seven matches.

Events on the pitch in the first half struggled to match the party atmosphere among the 453 supporters in the stands. Luke Barner flicked a cross past the post and a Luke Brabyn strike cleared the crossbar in the only notable efforts, although Ryan Downing was unlucky not to be awarded a penalty when he was brought down in the box while in full flow.

Barner thought he'd opened the scoring early in the second half when his volley from Kirk Davies' cross was expertly tipped wide by Street custodian Arthur Nastas, who was lucky not to give away a spot-kick later on when he brought down Brabyn on the corner of his box.

Street's best chance of the game fell to 22-goal striker Harry Foster, who was denied by Ryan Barnes from point-blank range, but the best opportunity of all fell to Brabyn in the 90th minute when he strode through on goal but could only place the ball into the Packet End behind.

"We knew coming into this game that they were one of the form sides," Westgarth said after the game. "They kept six clean sheets in a row coming into today and you can see why, they're a well-organised side and really hard to break down. But I think we can count ourselves a little bit disappointed not to win the game, we had enough chances to put them to bed and I was gutted for [Brabyn] right at the end.

"It was all set up for him: 0-0 in the 90th minute, in front of the Packet End, on for his 100th goal for the club with just the goalkeeper to beat. I'm gutted for him because that would have given us a deserved win in my opinion.

"That being said, our objective before the game was to secure seventh, whether that was what we do or whatever Helston do, and I'm absolutely delighted [to do it]. Not many people would probably have predicted anything other than the top six so to be top of that next tree shows steps in the right direction.

"I think we probably should have had two penalties. Ryan [Downing] in the first half, I don't know what he's got to do at this level of football to get a penalty and I'm baffled by what happened with Brabyn and the 'keeper at the end of the game as well. 

"That being said, I thought their goalkeeper today was outstanding and I'm not just saying that because we had about 25 million shots, but I thought that save he made off Luke Barner was outrageous. [He had] great kicking and I thought he was a real shining light for them."

     

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