Torpoint beaten again at Buckland Athletic

TORPOINT Athletic suffered their second defeat of the season within four days on Saturday against a Buckland Athletic side who picked up their first win of the season.

James Rowe put the visitors in front early on, but the Bucks came from behind with a goal in each half to secure the victory from Rafael Beadman and Samuel Stayt.

Within the opening five minutes the hosts went close as Jack Baxter’s shot from distance forced debutant keeper Ty Rowe – a summer signing from Bude Town – into a fine save which saw him tip the powerful effort over the crossbar.

Just before the 20-minute mark, Torpoint took the lead. A Curtis Damerell cross was parried in the area by the home keeper, Michael Searle, and the loose ball fell to Rowe to blast home into the empty net.

The visitors lead was shorted lived. Just past the half-hour mark a Danny Frankum corner was fired into the area where Beadman found the loose ball and sailed a lob into the top right corner of the net.

Minutes later, the visitors had another promising moment through winger Gary Hird. He ran clear and tried to round Searle, but the well-travelled stopper got his hands to the ball.

Ten minutes into the second half Torpoint’s Joe Rapson picked up possession and turned, but his shot from distance went just over the bar.

On the hour mark, Rapson threaded his way through the Buckland defence, but his effort from the edge of the area was put around the post by Searle. From the resulting corner taken by Rowe, centre-half Callum O’Brien headed narrowly wide.

A couple of minutes later, Buckland’s James Simmonds saw his effort go looping off the bar, before the hosts won it with 20 minutes remaining as Ryan Bush flicked the ball onto Stayt who controlled the ball well before rounding Rowe and tapping the ball home into the empty net.

Moments later the visitors had another opening as a free-kick from skipper Elliott Crawford found O’Brien in the area, but he headed wide of the post.

With ten minutes remaining, Bush rattled the crossbar with his effort, then five minutes later down the other end of the pitch, sub Tom Payne went down down in the area, but Torpoint’s penalty claim was waved away by referee Andrew Barnett.

To add to the visitors’ frustrations, they were reduced to 10 men in the final minute as Dave Barker, who offered no complaints, was shown a red card after bringing down Bush as the last man.

The Point are back in action tomorrow night (Tuesday, 7.30pm) when they host unbeaten Cornish rivals St Blazey.

BUCKLAND ATHLETIC: Mike Searle, Rafael Beadman, Danny Frankum, Charlie Madden, Coby White, Jack Baxter (Kai Swann, 84), Ben Carter, Baga Mariko (Ryan Bush, 61), Josiah McKayle (James Simmonds), Samuel Stayt, Toby Pullman (Isaac McCue, 58). Sub not used: George Russell.

TORPOINT ATHLETIC: Ty Rowe; Dave Barker, Sam Hepworth, Owen Haslam, Callum O’Brien, Elliott Crawford (capt), James Rowe (Tom Hensman, 74), Sam Pearson (Tom Payne, 84), Curtis Damerell, Joe Rapson, Gary Hird (Harry Probyn, 52). Subs not used: Sam Morgan, Shaun Cleary.

Torpoint Athletic man-of-the-match: Joe Rapson.