⚽ Cornwall Football: Cornish youngsters to represent Plymouth Argyle in national final
Plus: St Blazey beaten on penalties in Champions Bowl; Illogan RBL lift Intermediate Cup; Plymouth Argyle clinch League One title
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⬇️ In today’s newsletter ⬇️
🏆 Up for the cup: Cornish youngsters to represent Plymouth Argyle in national final
❌ St Blazey beaten on penalties in Champions Bowl
🥳 Illogan RBL lift Intermediate Cup
💚 Argyle clinch League One title
Enjoy. 〓〓
🏆 Up for the cup: Cornish youngsters to represent Plymouth Argyle in national final
By Colin Bradbury
On Thursday, a team from Cornwall, representing Plymouth Argyle, will head to Doncaster Rovers’ Eco-Power Stadium to face Derby County in the final of the Community & Education Football Alliance (CEFA) Cup.
CEFA is a football competition for EFL Club Community Organisations, featuring teams representing Premier League and EFL Clubs across the country. The Plymouth Argyle ‘A’ side is made up of boys participating in the club’s Football Development and Education Programme run by Argyle staff at Carn Brea, near Camborne.
Plymouth Argyle ‘A’ have already won their South West 1 division – for the second consecutive season – and have now reached the final of the cup competition for the first time in their six years of participating.
Three Plymouth sides are run out of Carn Brea. After a clean sweep of their leagues last season, this year the A and C teams won their respective divisions with only the B side missing out.
But this season is special, as Jamie Day, Cornwall Head of Football and Tutor in the Post-16 Football Education programme at Carn Brea explains.
“For the first time the A team has managed to get to the final of the National Cup — the furthest we’ve got in the previous six years was the quarter finals,” he said.
The Cup is open to all CEFA teams nationally. Until the final itself, the competition is split into southern and northern groups, with the winners of each playing each other for the honour of lifting the trophy.
The Plymouth Argyle A team’s journey to victory in the southern group has been a tough one, with victories over Chelsea, Watford, Norwich City and Ipswich Town.
“It’s a great achievement to be southern winners, but now to do it nationally would be a massive thing,” Jamie said.
The competition gives some of Cornwall’s best young players the opportunity to play against teams from across the country, under the Plymouth Argyle umbrella.
Alongside their commitment to the Plymouth team, the lads all play for local sides in Cornwall. The 16-man Plymouth ‘A’ squad for the cup final consists of five players each from Mousehole and Truro City Reserves, two from Sticker, and one each from Falmouth Town, Helston Athletic, Redruth United and Hayle. This means they play in a range of local and regional leagues – from the St Piran League through to the South West Peninsula League and the Western League.
Drew Symons leads the Mousehole Development team, which he joined in June 2022 after 15 years at Falmouth United. He is also part of the Plymouth Argyle Centre of Excellence team at Penryn, where he works alongside Mousehole first team manager Jake Ash. His son Jack also plays for the Plymouth Argyle A team.
“It’s an unbelievable achievement to get to the final for the first time”, he said. “They’re looking forward to it – they can’t wait.”
He is quick to point out that the local leagues have been highly supportive of the Plymouth Argyle A team’s efforts, particularly when it came to potential fixture clashes. With a heavy A team representation from Mousehole Development and Truro Reserves, who were competing for the St Piran League title, both Drew and Jamie commend that league’s organisers for their helpful approach to avoiding fixture issues.
“A couple of St Piran League games clashed with the Ipswich and Norwich games and the league agreed to reschedule,” Jamie said. “That was really good of them – it shows they’re backing new players.”
It’s not hard to see the valuable role played by all three of the Plymouth Argyle CEFA teams in helping to develop young talent for the Cornish game.
“The average squad age in a recent Mousehole Development team game was 18.6, and we already have three under-16s stepping up to that team,” Drew points out.
The team will head off to the final on Thursday in style as they have been given the use of the Plymouth Argyle First Team coach.
“It certainly beats the minibus,” laughs Jamie.
“This is a properly national competition involving some big teams. But we’ve got a strong squad with some of the lads playing Western League football. With the level of player we’ve got, we knew back in September that we could go on what I’ve called ‘a little journey’.”
He’ll be hoping that there will be a nice piece of silverware to accompany them on their return journey to Cornwall on Thursday evening.
Final details
Who: Derby County A v Plymouth Argyle A
When: Thursday May 11 (2.30pm kick-off)
Where: Doncaster Rovers FC, Eco-Power Stadium
Plymouth Argyle A likely squad:
Morgan Jones (Helston Athletic reserves)
Eagan Fabby (Truro City reserves)
Jamie Edlin (Truro City reserves)
Ollie Paterson (Truro City reserves)
Josh Evans (Truro City reserves)
James Swan (Falmouth Town)
Greg Eastman (Mousehole Development)
Jack Symons (Mousehole)
Ben Shaw (Truro City reserves)
Ovo Ememerurai (Sticker)
Jake Nancarrow (Sticker)
Ned Symons (Mousehole Development)
Liam Pascoe (Redruth United)
James Gold (Hayle)
Connor Hurrell (Mousehole Development)
Aaron Ibbetson (Mousehole Development)
❌ St Blazey beaten on penalties in Champions Bowl
South West Peninsula League Premier West champions St Blazey were unable to finish their glorious promotion-winning season on a high as they fell to a penalty-shootout defeat to Brixham in the SWPL Champions Bowl on Bank Holiday Monday.
Played between the winners of the SWPL’s two divisions, the Bowl acts as a curtain-closer for the league season and is a fundraiser for the league’s Benevolent Fund, which is used for a variety of causes such as covering lost income for players who suffer serious injuries.
Blazey got off to the perfect start at Cullompton Rangers’ Speeds Meadow, with skipper and top scorer Luke Cloke converting Sam Clifton’s cross in only the second minute to bag his 35th goal in all competitions.
The Fishermen, who will join St Blazey in the Western League next term after winning the SWPL Premier East, were soon on level terms, however, with their captain also notching as Kieran Parkin fired past Blazey custodian Shaun Semmens in the 19th minute.
There were no further goals across the 90 minutes so the tie went to penalties, with Cloke putting the Green and Blacks’ first kick over the crossbar. That proved decisive, with the Fishermen scoring all five of their spot-kicks to clinch the Bowl.
🥳 Illogan RBL lift Intermediate Cup
Nathan Hampton scored the winner as Illogan RBL defeated St Dominick 1-0 to lift the Cornwall Intermediate Cup on Sunday.
Hampton scored the only goal of the game 13 minutes from time at Wadebridge’s Bodieve Park as the St Piran League West outfit defeated their east division counterparts to become only the second team, after Mullion last year, to etch their name on the trophy.
They also exacted revenge on the Doms with their triumph after the east Cornwall club defeated Illogan 1-0 in the St Piran League Cup semi-final at Poltair Park two weeks earlier.
St Dominick, who saw their SPL East title challenge come to an end 24 hours earlier when Saltash Borough clinched the championship with a 1-1 draw at St Mawgan, had the chance to take the lead from the spot after ten minutes, but their kick was saved by RBL gloveman Barrie Wyatt.
The tie remained goalless until the decisive moment finally arrived in the 77th minute, when Illogan substitute Nathan Hampton drifted in from the left flank and guided the ball into the far corner to secure the trophy for the Oxland Park outfit.
💚 Argyle clinch League One title
Plymouth Argyle secured a magnificent Sky Bet League One title on Sunday with a powerful 3-1 victory at Port Vale, thanks to goals from Adam Randell, Joe Edwards and substitute Finn Azaz.
The Pilgrims knew the equation before kick-off: at least match the result achieved by Ipswich at Fleetwood and the title would be heading back to Home Park. Argyle removed any doubt with an outstanding display, despite conceding an early goal to youngster James Plant.
Randell drew the Greens level with a fabulous strike on 34 minutes and captain Edwards made it 2-1 with a back-post finish before half-time. Azaz confirmed the win with the final goal of a brilliant campaign, guiding a delicious finish into the top corner.
Then, on Bank Holiday Monday, via Princess Yachts and CityBuses, Argyle had the opportunity to show off their silverware to the city of Plymouth, with thousands lining the streets, and latterly the stands at Home Park, to celebrate with the team.
📋 Argyle: Burton, Gillesphey, Houghton, Wilson, Scarr, Butcher, Edwards, Mayor (Azaz HT), Ennis (Hardie 60), Mumba (Grant 83), Randell, C Wright (Matete 71). Subs (unused): Parkes, Cosgrove, Lonwijk.
“It means everything. It's the missing one in the collection. I've got a silver medal from promotion with Bury, a play-off medal, a third-place medal with Argyle a couple of years ago.
“Now we've got the one that says we're champions and I couldn't be any prouder. It's just amazing.
“The players and everyone concerned will go down in Argyle history. Our painting will be on the wall and all of that because that's what successful teams do. Everybody can say this year that they have given 100 per cent; we've given everything that we could possibly have.”
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