MANAGER Adam Castlehouse saw plenty of signs of improvement in his St Austell side’s performance at Langsford Park on Saturday despite another heavy defeat.

Following successive 7-0 league defeats to Ivybridge and Saltash, few people expected the Lillywhites to keep the score down against Southern League Tavistock.

But it was only 1-0 after a first half in which St Austell had decent chances through George Bills and Matt Pilkington, denied only by last-ditch interventions.

Kieran Edworthy had given Tavistock a 29th minute lead after Jack Crago’s initial effort bounced back off a post.

It took the home side until the 59th minute to double their lead and this time a Crago header was blocked by St Austell keeper Alfie Eccles before Joel Jackson finished off.

Ben Fowles made it 3-0 in the 63rd minute with a 20-yard rocket, Crago finally got on the scoresheet after 82 minutes and Fowles completed the scoring two minutes from time.

Castlehouse said: “Firstly, I want to thank Tavistock for their hospitality and congratulate them on their victory.

“The more clinical team won on the day and there cannot be any complaints about that.

“However, we looked far more together yesterday. For 60 minutes, our gameplan was working well. Despite being a goal down at the break, we had chances to be level, or even ahead at that point.

“The balance of the squad, work-rate, and belief in the lads were very noticeable. At times throughout the game, the performance was very much night and day, when compared to our previous two games.

“I am proud of how well the lads portrayed themselves and they should take some real confidence from the game and into the rest of the season.”