Walter C Parsons
League Cup
St Blazey 2
Ivybridge Town warmed up for a tough trip to Tavistock tomorrow by booking their place in the league cup quarter-finals with a win over St Blazey at Erme Valley writes Tim Leigh.
This followed on from an impressive victory over Helston in Cornwall to complete a good week for Town, who are firmly back in form after a sticky patch.
Ivybridge Town general manager Brian Howard was well aware his side are in for a tough match against Tavistock, but felt optimistic given back-to-back victories in the last seven days.
He said: ‘It’s going to be a hard game again, they’re one place above us in fourth, but we’ve had two good results this week.’
Ivybridge Town played on Tuesday night against St Blazey in the Walter C Parsons Cup, welcoming the Cornishmen to Erme Valley.
The match was played seven days later than originally planned due to the weather, but in the event it was a game worth waiting for as the match took 120 minutes to separate the sides.
Howard said that, despite Blazey’s current lowly league standing, they had recruited well recently and were now, on paper at least, a decent team.
Todd Hanrahan opened the scoring with a free kick from the left which he smashed into the far top corner to give Town the lead.
Blazey, however, were hanging on and took the tie to extra time with an 80th minute goal after the whistle blew with the score at 1-1
This proved to be just the spark Town needed, though, as Joe Truelove scored twice to put the Bridgers in control.
Blazey pulled one goal back but were unable to take the tie to penalties, meaning Ivybridge go through to a quarter-final match against Godolphin Atlantic, who crushed lower-league Liskeard 0-7. That match is scheduled for Tuesday, February 23.
Howard said: ‘We should have stitched up the game before extra time really, but their ‘keeper made three or four outstanding saves and our finishing wasn’t as good as it could have been.
‘That said, we’re into the quarter-finals so it’s a good result.’
That result backed up a strong performance on Saturday against another Cornish side, Helston Athletic, which the Bridgers won 2-3.
Howard said: ‘It was terrible conditions on Saturday, the pitch looked excellent to begin with but by the end it was really cutting up.
‘We were 2-0 up at half time playing into the wind, I think the conditions were so bad it was actually an advantage playing into the wind.’
Luke Brown opened the scoring for Ivybridge after 20 minutes, then Town doubled their lead just before the break when Brown was brought down in the box.
The referee awarded the penalty and defender Todd Hanrahan made no mistake from 12 yards out.
Howard added: ‘They scored 15 minutes into the second half and we knew then we were in for quite a battle.
‘Luckily, we managed to grab another goal five minutes later when Todd Hanrahan scored direct from a corner kick.
They made it 3-2 with five minutes left and it was all hands to the pump time, but we managed to hold on.
‘They’re mid table but they’re a good side and not many teams win down there, so it was a good result for us.’