A Fraser Paterson hat-trick handed Port an impressive win in their first outing of the season, and meant Penzance failed to follow-up their own opening day success, on a drizzly night at Gala Parc.
The Magpies made the brighter start with Adam Lewis having a couple of early chances, but fell behind on the quarter hour when Paterson got behind their back line and buried his first. He stabbed home a second shortly before the break, and the half-time gap would have been wider had not Ryan Trathen (for hand-ball) and Stephen Jory (offside) had further “goals” disallowed.
Attacking the harbour end, Penzance again started brightly after the break. Lewis Caspall hared clear down the left and centred to Kizzy Snowden whose effort was superbly saved by Martin Wortley. The Port keeper was finally beaten when Caspall dispossessed a defender and drilled home a low shot to halve the deficit. But, within a couple of minutes, Fraser burst through the heart of the visiting defence to grab his third and put Porthleven clear again. Wortley pulled off further fine saves from Harvey Richings (twice) and Caspall as the Fishermen saw out the closing stages.
“I didn’t think the result truly reflected the match or our performance,” said frustrated Penzance joint manager Daz Smith. “Simply put, they took their chances and we didn't, so hats off to Porthleven. It was the story of our pre-season. Man of the Match for me would have been their keeper. He made some fantastic saves and kept the scoreline in their favour. We must learn from this as we'll face a lot of teams that are more physical than us, so fitness and speed of play is something we'll be working on in training as well as better ball retention in possession.”
Penzance: Will Trenoweth, Henry Ramsay (Harvey Richings 46), Lewis Hitchens, Sam Payne (Ashley Mead 73), Josh Reeves, Ewan Trevains, Kam Collins, Kizzie Snowden (Connor Thomas 84), Joel Steel, Lewis Caspall, Adam Lewis. Unused sub: Matt Robinson
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