Active Alarms George Gillin Trophy

Horrabridge Rangers 5

Yelverton Villa 6

YELVERTON enjoyed a superb victory against their local rivals.

In an entertaining first half Villa outclassed their league two opponents, despite having gone behind inside the first five minutes. Yelverton remained composed on the ball and some nice interplay down the left side saw Ben Maughan slide a neat pass into Ben Pridham to slot an equaliser past the Rangers keeper.

The roles were reversed 10 minutes later, when Pridham found Maughan on the left of the penalty box. Maughan rode two strong challenges before beating the keeper on his near post to give Villa the lead.

The Villa defensive line of Jed Langdon, Cadan Lowther, Adam Measom and Jay Lambert snuffed out most of the Horrabridge attacks, but when the defence was breached, stand in keeper, Martin Harris dealt comfortably with the danger. This created a great platform for Yelverton to build on, and strikes from Mike Chatfield and Colin Murray extended the lead to 4-1 at half time.

Horrabridge pulled a goal back on 50 minutes from a corner, but moments later Villa's Pridham latched on to a through ball from Tom Scott, and drilled the ball into the net. Pridham completed his hat-trick with some tenacious chasing, forcing an error from the Horrabridge keeper and deflecting his attempted clearance into the net.

Horrabridge pulled a goal back before Villa were forced to play the last 15 minutes with only 10 men. Rangers looked to make the extra man count and scored their fourth goal with a stunning 20 yard strike. On 85 minutes they made it five after being awarded a penalty, but Villa defended bravely and held on to claim a well deserved win and cup upset.

Plymouth and West Devon four

Tavistock Community FC B 5

Yelverton Villa 1

THIS was the proverbial game of two halves and it was Yelverton who had the better of the first half against a Tavistock side who were fielding a number of 'A' team players.

Villa took the game to Tavistock and were rewarded with a goal after 20 minutes when Joel Blatchford laid the ball through into the run of Ben Pridham who calmly slotted the ball past the oncoming keeper.

Tom Scott and Tom Goswell solidly defended the line and linked up well with the Villa midfield and attack. Villa continued to press and nearly doubled their lead when, from a corner, a Sean Gill header rattled the crossbar.

Almost immediately TCFC caught Villa on the break and scrambled the ball into the net for the equaliser. This fired up Villa and on the stroke of half time, Blatchford raced through the Tavistock defence but placed his shot just wide of the post.

In the second half, Villa paid the price for not taking their chances as, despite continuing to play positive football, they were undone by Tavistock's counter attack, and some sloppy defending and poor decision making at crucial times ultimately cost Villa the match.