SWPL
premier division
Launceston 0,
Ivybridge Town are hoping their injury curse will have lifted by the time they travel to Godolphin tomorrow afternoon to take on one of the league’s top teams.
The Bridgers follow up that match with a home tie on Tuesday against St Blazey in the Walter C Parsons Cup. That game, which kicks off at 7.30pm, is one that Ivybridge general manager Brian Howard is targeting as they seek a morale-boosting victory.
He said: ‘It’s a big game because if we win that we’re through to the quarter-finals, and once you’re there anything can happen.
‘The pitch wouldn’t have been playable on the weekend if we’d been at home, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed for Tuesday.’
Ivybridge’s injury woes have seen them field skeleton squads in recent games and their form has suffered as a result, but they did earn an impressive point away to Launceston in a Friday night fixture last week.
This stopped the rot for the team, who had lost their last three league games, and they did it once again fielding a bare side.
Howard picked out his defence for special praise, saying: ‘They beat us at home first game of the season, it’s always a tough place to go, so we’re very pleased with the result.’
‘We’ve had a tough time of it recently and we only had 11 fit players available, but I thought our defence played extremely well and we could even have nicked it at the death. Joe Truelove had a superb effort that hit the post on 90 minutes, if that had gone it would have been the icing on the cake.’
Ivybridge also played midweek in the St Luke’s Challenge Cup, welcoming Stoke Gabriel to Erme Valley.
Teenage striker James Rowe put Town ahead but Gabriel came back to force first extra time and then penalties, which the away side won 5-4.
Looking forward to the Godolphin game, Howard acknowledged the scale of the task against team sitting third in the table.
He said: ‘We’re hoping to have some of our injured players back, we’ll need them for a very tough trip. They’re a very strong side and have been playing well.’