Beer Albion were well beaten 7-1 by St Martins in their Throgmorton Devon Premier Cup tie at the Furzebrake on Saturday, writes Richard Honnor.

The Saints sit at the top of South West Peninsula Division One East while the Fishermen are currently struggling at the foot of the Devon and Exeter Premier so there were no surprises with the result. Beer started brightly and only a fingertip save from the St Martin’s keeper prevented Richard Walker from giving his side an early league. St Martin’s then took complete control and with the Fishermen starting to give the ball away too easily and failing to mark tightly enough, the Saints went ahead 1-0 after 15 minutes with a clinical turn and finish by their striker. Beer came close to equalising with Walker again testing the Saints keeper on 25 minutes but the visitors increased their lead a minute later with a looping headed goal. It was 3-0 after 34 minutes with another header, this time from a corner. To their credit, Beer did continue to create chances, the best of which fell to hard-working striker Seth Wakely, but he sliced wide after being put through by Walker.

After the break Beer had their best spell of the match and pulled back to 3-1 when James Melville rounded a defender and the keeper to slot the ball home after good work by Walker and Wakely on 47 minutes.

St Martins however, responded quickly with yet another header on 51 minutes to go 4-1 in front. Beer competed well for the next 15 minutes with Walker and Chris Long going close with long range efforts. But the home side ran out of steam and although Beer had a goal disallowed for offside after another fine save by the Saints keeper, St Martin’s took full control to score three late goals to complete the rout.

For Beer, Walker, Wakely, Melville and Joe Adkin worked hard but honest endeavour was never going to be enough against their excellent opponents.