FIRST half goals from Ryan Richards and Sam Pearson earned Torpoint Athletic a 2-1 victory over visiting Shepton Mallet at The Mill on Saturday afternoon.

The result put The Point up to second in the table and are now undefeated in 10 matches in all competitions so far this season.

Torpoint were in action for the first time since their 3-1 victory at Royal Wootton Bassett Town in the FA Cup last weekend, and joint bosses Dean Cardew and Karl Curtis utilised their squad.

Goalkeeper Ryan Rickard made his first appearance of the season with James Morley dropping down to the bench, while Joe Rapson, Tom Payne and Callum Martindale (unavailable) also made way with Richards, Darren Hicks and James Rowe coming in. Callum O’Brien was back on the bench.

The first real chance arrived in the eighth minute as after Richards’ effort was well saved by visiting keeper Owen Crawford, Hicks got to the loose ball and laid it on to Curtis Damerell who saw his cheeky backheel saved.

Ten minutes later the hosts took the lead when Hicks’ cross from the left found Pearson, and he released Richards who blast homed into the bottom corner from 15 yards.

The home side were on top and just before the half-hour mark, Rowe won the ball off a visiting defender before crossing to Richards who has space in the box, but his effort went just wide of the far post.

With four minutes remaining of the first period, Torpoint doubled their advantage.

The visitors attempted to play out the ball from the back, but Crawford mistakenly passed the ball to Pearson who made no mistake.

Within the opening ten minutes of the second half Shepton had their first real chance of the afternoon when Corey Stock rampaged through the home defence, only to see his effort saved low down by Rickard.

For next 15 minutes the visitors were on top and created a series of half chances without really troubling Rickard.

With a quarter of an hour remaining, Torpoint nearly grabbed a third when Dave Barker’s free-kick was put wide from 15 yards by sub Rapson.

Moments later, it was in heart in mouths time for the hosts as they somehow managed to clear away a goalmouth scramble following a corner.

Shepton did set up a grandstand in the final minute as after Paul Braithwaite was fouled, Ashton Shanley’s free-kick into the area found Luke Wilkinson to give the Somerset side a lifeline.

In the second minute of stoppage-time things turned sour for the visitors as they had Braithwaite and Aaron Seviour sin-binned by referee Graeme Martin.

It then got even worse for ‘The Mallet’ as while Seviour was in dugout serving his sin-bin penalty, he was shown a straight red card for apparent comments made to the official.

However, it didn’t matter to Torpoint who now have five wins and a draw to their name from their opening six league matches.

TORPOINT ATHLETIC: Ryan Rickard, Dave Barker, Sam Hepworth, Owen Haslam, Fred Chapman, Elliott Crawford (capt), Sam Pearson, James Rowe (Sam Morgan, 57), Curtis Damerell, Ryan Richards (Joe Rapson, 65), Darren Hicks. Sub not used: James Morley (gk), Tom Payne, Callum O’Brien.