AFTER an excellent, almost flawless, 16-game unbeaten start to this season, leaders Liskeard felt the full force of Burngullow on Saturday as fifth from bottom Sticker pulled off their best result of the league campaign.

Sticker can always be a tricky fixture but when you throw in a howling, debilitating wind and rain sweeping horizontally across the pitch, you’ve got your hands full as an away side.

The conditions were certainly a leveller but that should take nothing away from the performance of Sticker who, to a man, gave everything to earn three points against arguably the best team in the division.

This was even more of a shock result when you study the teams’ results going into the fixture. Sticker had lost their last six home games while Liskeard had won six on the trot on their travels. No brainer then – an away win banker.

But football has a funny way of kicking you where it hurts and Liskeard were not at their best; it just didn’t seem their day from the start.

Dan Nancarrow’s side weren’t lucky; they got a crucial early goal and then matched Liskeard all over the pitch. It wasn’t really a day for picking out one player, but skipper Harvey Hann used all of his know-how to keep the visitors’ attacking threat out with a magnificent contribution.

The experience of former St Austell favourites Hann and Olly Brokenshire proved crucial; you just can’t teach players how to read the game to be in the right place at the right time.

You might think that Sticker goalkeeper Harry Ashton, another vastly experienced player, must have had a busy afternoon, given that Liskeard completely dominated possession, but the protection in front of him meant he hardly had a shot of note to save.

Nancarrow said: “I am so, so proud on what the players have done today. Every single one of them deserves credit for their performance both individually and as a team.

“But my question to them is, can they do it in the next game and the next game after that?

“There is no point in putting a performance like that and beating one of the best teams in the league if we can’t follow it up against Truro next week.”

Liskeard joint manager Darren Gilbert said: “Taking nothing away from Sticker, who deserved to win, but I thought we were a shadow of ourselves and just not at the races.

“Whether some of our players had had too many Christmas parties in the week I don’t know, but we were well off it all over the pitch.

“I said before the match that this would be our hardest game so far, but then we concede a silly goal straight away and it’s very difficult after that.

“We’ve got no divine right to win any match, you have to work for everything. This result is going to do us the world of good because we’ve become complacent.”

Liskeard still have a three-point lead at the top but second-placed Elburton Villa now have a game in-hand after their game at Launceston was postponed.

Gilbert said: “We’ve dropped points where we didn’t need to drop points and the advantage we had has gone.

“We always knew the two games against Elburton were going to be massive, but it would have been nice to have gone into them with a bit of a buffer.”

After a blessed dry few hours leading up to kick-off, the rain started right on cue at 2.55pm and suddenly a bitingly cold wind developed, sweeping from one end of the pitch to the other, the clubhouse side.

Sticker, playing into the gusts, seized the moment. Within 30 seconds a corner from the left picked out Hann and his effort crashed against the bar with keeper Luke Gwillam beaten.

In their next attack the home side opened the scoring with Connor Cooke on hand to finish after a cross into the box caused a mix-up between defender Jordan Powell and Gwillam.

The Liskeard gloveman made amends in the 14th minute when he tipped away a header from Fin Nancarrow which was creeping under the bar.

The visitors didn’t quite know what had hit them but they pulled themselves together for the remainder of the first half and James Lorenz was desperately close to an equaliser when his shot from 25 yards crashed against the post with Ashton beaten.

Ryan Richards also had an opportunity from close range but somehow lifted his shot over the bar to sum up increasing frustration from the visitors.

Gilbert said: “If those chances go in then it’s a different game.”

The feeling was that Gilbert and co-manager Wayne Gamble would sort out things at half-time for the Blues, but they made a disastrous start to the second half by giving away a penalty when Sol Wilson was tripped by Ben Collins after a calamity of errors at the back and Sam Eccleston scored with aplomb to make it 2-0 after 48 minutes.

This made Sticker the first team to score two goals against Liskeard in the league all season – and it was the signal for Sticker to sit back and protect what they had, keeping an almost faultless shape as Liskeard struggled to find a way through.

They eventually did when they were awarded a 70th minute penalty which allowed Richards to send Ashton the wrong way from the spot and with 20 minutes plus added time to play, it was very much game on.

Had Liskeard got an equaliser from their constant pressure they might well have found a way to win; having said that, Sticker had a couple of excellent chances on the breakaway which would have put the game to bed but they failed to make the most of them.

The final whistle was greeted with cheers from home supporters, who appeared to forget for a moment that they were soaked through after enduring horrible conditions in the last 20 minutes.

For Liskeard, it was a case of trying to consign this result and performance to history and looking ahead to the Boxing Day derby against bottom-of-the-table Dobwalls at Lux Park (11am kick-off).

STICKER: Harry Ashton, Josh Penrose, Jake Chafer, Owen Rosevear, Harvey Hann, Fin Nancarrow, Sam Eccleston, Connor Cooke, Sol Wilson, Ewan Warren, Olly Brokenshire. Subs: E Skyba, R Ward, J Bragg.

LISKEARD ATHLETIC: Luke Gwillam, Ben Collins, Sam Gerken, Todd Hanrahan, Josh McCabe (capt), Matt Andrew, Sean Thomson, James Lorenz, George Newton (Bailey Mabin, 64), Jordan Powell, Ryan Richards. Subs used: Harry Jeffery, Bailey Mabin, Dan Jennings. Not used: Scott Sanders.

Men-of-the-match: Sticker – Harvey Hann; Liskeard Athletic – James Lorenz.