St Ives Town 2 Rushall Olympic 4

It was a game of penalties with four converted, including a hat-trick for Sam Whittall, as Rushall Olympic won 4-2 at St. Ives Town.

The early action saw Richard Batchelor launch a raid which ended with Jonathan Letford making room for a strike that was well saved.

Our purposeful start continued as Daniel Waldron cut inside and curled just wide of the target.

We took the lead just before the half-hour mark when Isaiah Bazeley-Graham linked up well with Kieran Cook who was brought down for a penalty which Sam Whittall stepped up and fired home.

It wasn’t long before our hosts levelled matters with a penalty of their own as Rob Parker sent Jon Flatt the wrong way.

The equaliser put a spring in our hosts’ step and Flatt saved well before Waldron was denied at the other end by a smart save right on the stroke of half-time.

It was a good start to the second half for The Pics when Letford was brought crashing down inside the area for another penalty which Whittall dispatched with aplomb to make it 2-1.

As we looked to extend our lead, Lee Smith went close with a header and then Alex Moore did well to break into the area only for his inviting low ball to just evade Letford in the middle.

Whittall made it a hat-trick of penalties when Cook was brought down by the ‘keeper with just over 20 minutes to go and then a fourth goal followed late on when Smith headed home from a Moore corner to make it 4-1.

The home side were able to pull a goal back late on through Dylan Wilson, but it was too little, too late.