Parkway are victorious on return home
PAUL Wotton felt that Truro City’s 0-0 draw with Dartford in National South at Gloucester’s Meadow Park was ‘a good point’.
This result inches the White Tigers a little closer to the magical 50-point mark, which will almost certainly guarantee Wotton’s charges play Step Two football in 2024-25.
In a game of few chances, it was Dartford who had the better of those in the first half when former City loan striker Ollie Bray twice went
PLYMOUTH Parkway manager Lee Hobbs breathed a huge sigh of relief as his team ended an eightmatch winless run in the Southern League Premier Division on their return to Bolitho Park on Tuesday night.
In their first outing on home turf in eight weeks, Parkway overcame Didcot Town 2-1 with goals from Tom Purrington and Reece Thomson, but they were far more dominant than the scoreline suggests as missed chances were again prevalent, much to the frustration of their manager.
“It is three massive points, but Jesus Christ, we made hard work of that!” Hobbs said. “We had enough chances there to not win two games, but to win six games and on another night, it could have been five or six and that’s with no discredit to Didcot Town.
“I thought, first half, we were magnificent and I said at half-time we had to take the game away from them and find that second goal as fast as we can. (Jack) Crago has gone clean through and (if he scores) that makes my night a lot easier in that technical area.
“He has obviously missed and they have gone up the other end and been gifted a really soft penalty, in my opinion. I could see it, I was right on top of it but, again, we are giving teams gifts or officials opportunities to level up or beat us with winners and we have got to take that away from our game because the more you give those opportunities, the harder it is to get three points.
“But we found the, we have got them, it is one win from the five that we need and I said all along that the quicker we get back here (to Bolitho) the quicker results will improve and there’s the first one.”
It was a much-needed win for Parkway, whose build up play was top notch. But in that final third, they too often went for the safe option, or failed to produce a moment of quality when they needed it most.
The win saw Parkway close the gap between them and the safety zone to three points – and they still have plenty of games in hand – with their next two matches at Sholing tomorrow and at home to Poole Town on Easter Monday, both at 3pm.
Tiverton Town were frustrated in their attempts to play their much delayed clash with Winchester City. The Ladysmead pitch was again deemed unplayable after an afternoon inspection with the heavy rain that fell throughout Monday and through the might swamping the pitch once again.
In Division One South, it was a chastening night for Bideford, who saw their play-off hopes hit with a 5-0 thumping at majestic Mousehole.
Hayden Turner showed once again what a class act he is with a brilliant hattrick inside the opening 27 minutes – that’s 21 league goals in 27 appearances now for the 27-year-old – while Callum McOnie also struck in that scintillating spell.
The fifth and final goal came in stoppage time from Joshua Otta as the Robins were well and truly beaten. Mousehole are now up to fourth in the table with Bideford slipping outside the playoff places and down to sixth.