Carlsberg South West Peninsula Premier

Tavistock 3

Launceston 0

ON a sunny Boxing Day afternoon the Lambs won an entertaining local derby against Launceston at Langsford Park.

The first half was mainly contested in midfield, with neither side creating much in the attacking third of the pitch, so neither goalkeeper was really tested.

The referee booked three home players and two of the visitors in a half that the Lambs felt did not see a bad tackle.

Whatever the manager had to say at his half-time team talk, it had the desired effect and Tavistock played with much more purpose and a higher tempo, and began to control the game, putting the visitors' defence under pressure.

In the 58th minute James for Launceston received his second yellow card of the afternoon, reducing the visitors to ten men.

Ten minutes later Tavistock took the lead when Dave Hallett split the visitors' defence open with an excellent pass to set Mike Southgate free, who beat the Launceston keeper with a fine shot low into the bottom corner of the net.

The Lambs continued to dominate and in the 73rd minute Hallett was fouled just outside the penalty area. The same player took the free kick, to curl the ball around the defensive wall into the same corner as Southgate.

Tavistock's new signing Andy Bowker celebrated his return to Langsford Park and within three minutes of coming off the substitutes' bench he fired hard and low past Hider from 14 yards to finish off some great approach play between Hallett, Steer and Southgate.

In total there were ten bookings and one sending off, although the officials from both clubs were convinced there was only really one bad tackle throughout the 90 minutes in a closely contested local derby.

This win keeps the Lambs in contention with the leading pack in the league, and should provide the team with the confidence and the incentive to put a good run of results to be in a position to challenge for honours at the end of the season.

The attendance for the game was somewhat disappointing, and the club would ask the people of the area to come along and support the team on match days.

• On Saturday the first team visits Falmouth Town, kick-off 3pm. The reserves entertain Bere Alston in what should be another exciting local derby, kick-off 2.30pm.