St Just completed a Saturday afternoon double over their near neighbours when, immediately after the first team game, the Reserves came from behind to beat the Magpies second string.
Lee Major and Daz Smith’s young side dominated the first half with Joel Keen, drafted in to lead the line, Tyler Dayus and Kizzy Snowden, who played almost the entirety of both matches, causing particular problems to the home defence. They eventually took a deserved lead right on the interval when Alfie Beard beat Martin Grenfell, who played in both games for the Tinners, with a neat lob.
The match was turned on its head soon after the break when St Just scored twice in a minute, the first coming from the penalty spot. The game then became increasingly fractious and both sides were reduced to ten men, Sam Payne being the Magpie to receive his marching orders. The Tinners wrapped up victory with a second spot kick, after 66 minutes.
Looking back on the match, Daz Smith reflects: “Our young team tried to keep the ball moving in order to create gaps for us to exploit, and had it not been for some fantastic saves from the St Just keeper we could have been three or four up early doors.
St Just were a very physical team and left some of our players bruised and battered today. James Payne was on the receiving end of a studs-up tackle early on before Haidar Fadli was targeted several times, eventually being forced off injured. Still, it is to be expected and we will come across this sort of thing throughout the season and it is something we must learn from.”
After riding so many tackles and showing great resilience, Haidar Fadli received the Man of the Match award. The Reserves have one more friendly, at home to Perranporth’s second string this Saturday, before their Whirlwind Sports Trelawny League campaign kicks off.
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