Both Dave Hallett and Paul Chuwen were unavailable for selection, so once again the Lambs had to make changes to the starting eleven. The game was played in poor conditions with a strong swirling wind and the playing surface was not the best. This made it extremely difficult for Tavistock to play their normal passing game and they never really mastered the difficult conditions.
The home team adapted better to the conditions and always looked dangerous in attack. Andy Meeds produced a fine save to deny Bradley Wills putting the home side ahead in the 18th minute. Both Lewis Caspel and Ryan Andrews both went close.
Then, five minutes before the interval, the Lambs had a great chance to opening the scoring when Jimmy Keily produced a defence splitting pass which found John James, but his shot was just wide of the far post with the ‘keeper rooted to his line. Minutes later James again went close when his fine header from a corner kick flashed just over the bar.
With the wind at their backs the Lambs looked favourites to go on top and win the game, but this was not to be, as the visitors failed to take advantage of the windy conditions. It looked all afternoon that a single goal was going to secure the points, and this proved to be the case.
The goal came in the 66th minute when Jamie Thrickle nipped in front of the Lambs’ defence to slide home a side foot shot at the near post from Caspell’s right wing cross.
The Lambs tried their hardest to get an equaliser, and pushed forward without producing that final pass to create clear cut chances. The last ten minutes saw the visitors apply more pressure, and during this period there were a number of bookings, which resulted in Penzance midfielder Danny Cummings receiving a second yellow card for comments made to the referee.
With the visitors pushing forward they were always going to be suspect to counter attacks and this was the case and the home team nearly increased their lead near the end of the game.
This was a really disappointing performance from the Lambs, and they will need to get back on track before the visit of Cullompton this Saturday.
Match Report: Derek Pethick