St Dennis win Cup
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LEE Rickard was the star of the show as he hit four goals as St Dennis won their first ever Cornwall junior cup defeating Falmouth Athletic 5-2 in the final replay.
For what the first game lacked in excitement the replay certainly made up for it nine days later with the Saints coming out on top in a seven-goal thriller.
The game started at a frantic pace with two goals inside the opening four minutes.
It was Athletic, who perhaps shaded the first half who were the first to show taking the lead after just three minutes.
The lively Joe Perrin picked up the loose ball on the edge of the area before shooting into the corner of St Dennis goalkeeper Mike Barrett's net.
The lead lasted just a minute though as the Saints levelled when Gareth Geach played the ball onto Rickard who lifted the ball over experienced goalkeeper Kevin Toy and into the back of the net.
Athletic continued to look bright on the attack and after Nathan Macintosh had a shot blocked on nine minutes they re-established their lead on 19 when Martin Gallaway fed Macintosh who took his time before cooly slotting home from inside the six yard box.
The Saints went in level at the break with goal eight minutes before the interval when Chris Brown saw his 35-yard free-kick come off the underside of the bar and over goalkeeper Toy and into the back of the net.
St Dennis required less than two minutes of the second half to take the lead for the first time in the encounter Rickard toe-poking the ball home from six yards after capitalising on some indecision in the Falmouth defence.
Rickard then completed his hat-trick on 67 minutes to establish a two-goal buffer, when after some neat foot work his shot from the edge of the area took a slight deflection before finding it's way past the helpless Toy.
Dave Rickard's side didn't stop there as their sharp and swift attacks were causing the Falmouth back-line all sorts of problems and with 17 minutes remaining they sealed their historic win as manager's son and man-of-the-match Lee bagged his fourth goal of the tie.
After being picked out by his strike partner Brown, Rickard waited for the exact moment to lift the ball over the advancing Toy and into the far corner of the net.
Athletic pushed forward late on in search of giving St Dennis a nervy finish but they was to be no way past St Dennis' Barrett and it was the Saints who were left celebrating their win at the final whistle.
St Dennis (3-5-2): Barrett; D Rickard jnr, Tippett (Lawrence), White; Bird, M Brown, Hayhurst, Hawke, Geach (Manuell); C Brown (S Brown) and L Rickard.
