Tavistock AFC 1 Marine 4

Match Report from Pete Crockett

MONK SHEARS THE LAMBS IN DARTMOOR DOWNPOUR

The FA Cup may often be a romance but on a Dartmoor afternoon of wind and wet it resembled something nearer the gothic. Swindon Supermarine advanced, and it was FRANKIE MONK who read the script most fluently etching a hat-trick into the storm.

Tavistock Town began like a side in a rush. JACK CRAGO struck in the second minute from a distance that usually requires a search party, a thunderclap thirty-yard shot found the top corner and left Marine groping for bearings amid the horizontal rain. In those early exchanges both teams were chasing after a ball that behaved like a wayward balloon in a gale.

Nonetheless this is cup football where things can change swiftly. In the 10th minute a free-kick was worked quickly, a cross delivered to the back post, and FRANKIE MONK was waiting with certainty in his boots to level - rifling his shot low and hard past the keeper. In an almost instant riposte Tavistock’s Jack Crago stole through and thought he had restored the host’s lead only to be thwarted by the assistant’s offside flag.

From there tackles hardened. A foul by the host’s Ryan White on Jamie Edge brought bodies together in a heated push and shove. Two yellow cards flashed like lightning in the gathering squall. With ten minutes of the first half remaining a defensive lapse saw Ryan White get ahead of the Marine defence. His finish, as defenders closed on him from behind, was rushed and went wide of the far post.

In the fifth minute of the second half Tavistock had the chance to take the lead. Jack Crago got through on a one on one but Lucas Myers in the Marine goal stood tall and made an excellent parried save. The loose ball then broke to the hosts Ryan White whose effort went well wide.

As the second half progressed Marine began to assert themselves through Frankie Monk’s trickery, Dan Warre’s attacking vim and vigour, and the two Josh’s, Grant and Blyth defending with composure beyond their years. Diagonal cross-field switches of play were increasingly troubling the home team.

In the 61st minute Marine took the lead. Sal Abubakar on the right wing conjured a teasing ball to the back post where FRANKIE MONK coolly blasted his low shot, from the corner of the six-yard box, past the keeper.

Then with 65 minutes elapsed the irrepressible Monk burst into the box only to be felled by the outstretched dive of the Lambs’ keeper. Tavistock’s custodian of the goal bleated the crime scene was outside the area, but the referee, unblinking, would not have the wool pulled over his eyes. FRANKIE MONK gathered the ball; he would not be fleeced of the chance to secure his hat-trick. He rammed the penalty home leaving the Lambs looking decidedly shorn.

The hosts were not prepared to admit defeat and with twenty minutes remaining Ben Fowles drilled a well struck shot on target, but a perfectly positioned Lucas Myers saved with ease. This was closely followed by the Lambs Kieran Edworthy heading a presentable opportunity from close range wide of the far post. From there on Marine might have run riot.

Chance followed chance: James Harding denied, Sid Gbla frustrated, shots hacked from the line. Eventually, in the 75th minute, JOSH BLYTH scored the fourth drilling home a rasping fifteen yard shot after a goal line clearance had thwarted Sid Gbla’s initial effort.

Tavistock, to their credit, kept going until the end with Jack Crago leading their forward line with gusto. On a demanding day for officiating praise should be given to referee Luke McFarlane and his assistants who managed the match well.

The final whistle confirmed that Marine were deserved winners - collectively they dug deep as a unit to overcome tough conditions. These collaborative labours were bolstered by Frankie Monk’s finishing; some resolute defending from Sam Turl, Josh Blyth, Josh Grant, and Piotr Petrynski; and keeper Lucas Myers excellent handling of a wet soap football.

The team were well supported by a travelling band of followers who defied the rain as sturdily as the players. Marine manager Bobby Wilkinson praised them stating that - “I wanted to say a massive thank you to the fans for coming to support the lads today.“

“A long journey and being there in awful weather would have put a lot of people off. The weather was challenging and with it raining like that it means a lot to me, my management team, and my players that they were in the stands and on the touchline in those conditions. Hopefully we get a good tie in the next round as reward for their efforts.“

Marine’s FA Cup run has already had literary links: from Jane Austen’s Hampshire to Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Hound of the Baskervilles” territory. Next up Thomas Hardy’s Wessex; Daphne du Maurier’s Cornwall; or hopefully a game at our own home ground only a few miles from James Bond author Ian Fleming’s final resting place in Sevenhampton?

The FA Cup, like a novel, insists on chapters, on voices, on sudden twists and turns. What it also often decrees is that in the rain and the mud someone must be the hero. Here that someone was FRANKIE MONK who on Dartmoor in the teeth of a gale scored his own classic hat trick.

Well done Marine!

Attendance: 118

TAVISTOCK AFC

Manager:	Darren Spong
Line-up:	Colours: Red & Black
No	Player	Goals	Card	No	Substitute	Goals	Card
1	Will Howard [GK]
3	Ethan Wright
4	Charlie Madden			7.	Tallan Burns 68’
5	Joel Jackson
8	Ben Fowles		85’
9	Ryan White		25’
10	Kieran Edworthy			17.	Cole Fisher 63’
11	Jack Crago (c)	2’	37’
12	Jacob Bowker
14	Ollie Northan			15.	Josh Baxter 63’
20	Iestyn Harris

Editors Star Man: Jack Crago
Subs not used: 2. Ben Cross, 16. Reece Lindsell, 18. Nick Salop

MARINE

Manager:	Bobby Wilkinson
Line-up:	Colours: All Yellow
No	Player	Goals	Card	No	Substitute	Goals	Card
1	Lucas Myers [GK]
2	Sam Turl (c)
3	Piotr Petrynski
4	Josh Grant		25’
5	Josh Blyth	63’
6	Tawana Changa			15	Sam Bailey
7	Sal Abubakar			12	James Harding 72’
8	Jamie Edge			17	Olly Case 73’
9	Dan Warre			14	Jonny Efedje 80’
10	Sid Gbla
11	Frankie Monk	10’, 53’, 61’pen		16	George Alston 75’

Editors Star Man: Frankie Monk
Subs not used: 20. Nick Harvey