Mousehole 0 Portishead Town 2
Match Report by Darren Vowles / 11th April
Southern League Division One South
Portishead Town guaranteed themselves a top-three finish with a commanding 2–0 victory over Mousehole in Cornwall.
The visitors were forced into a reshuffle even before the game kicked off when Owen Humphries suffered an injury during the warm-up, resulting in Ethan Feltham coming into the starting XI. The late change did little to disrupt Posset’s rhythm, as they took the lead after just 10 minutes. Kyle Egan and Jay Murray linked up brilliantly on the right flank, with the latter’s cross sparking a goalmouth scramble. Feltham saw two efforts heroically blocked on the line, but Jack Thorne was on hand to smash home the rebound, continuing his lethal form following last week’s hat-trick.
Portishead nearly doubled their lead shortly after when an exquisite pass from Jamie Adams released Egan, though his effort was well saved by Ollie Chenoweth. Adams, together with Mitch Osmond in the middle of the park, were winning the midfield battle, not only winning the ball back on countless occasions but also having the quality to launch attacks.
Some of the football on display was delicious, with Feltham going close from one such passage of play. Feltham chested a long ball forward into the path of Kyle Egan who played a precise return ball only for the posset number nine to be denied by a perfectly timed last ditch tackle.
At the other end Ollie Woodhouse and Hamish Hurst were looking imperious, the Mousehole forwards were living off scraps. Fullbacks Aron Robbins and Mason Winter were just as involved supporting the attack as performing their defensive duties. And as the half time whistle blew the only disappointment for Portishead was that their lead was only one.
The second half followed a similar pattern, and in the 55th minute Adams regained possession and fed Egan, who in turn released Feltham. The striker drove aggressively at the Mousehole backline before playing in Jay Murray, who calmly slotted past Chenoweth to double the lead. Moments later Murray had the ball in the back of the net again, after collecting the ball, rounding the keeper and rolling it home – only to be denied by a very late offside call.
Portishead always looked a threat and, in a sign of the quality of the squad, substitutes Sam Watkins, Lucas Vowles and Corey Evans were all introduced and were immediately involved in the game.
Mousehole attempted to fight back with a late flurry of set-pieces, but Jakob Glover remained commanding in the air to snuff out any danger, and in doing so secured his sixth clean sheet in posset’s last seven league games.
The result marks a double celebration for Portishead: they become the first team in the division to hit the 100-goal mark and officially secure at least third place in the table.
Jack Davidson