CAMELFORD boss Bobby Hopkinson hailed his side as the Camels built on their remarkable midweek success over Mousehole by seeing off Holsworthy 4-1 at Trefrew Park.

Both teams went into the contest on a high as the Devonians arrived in North Cornwall off the back of a 5-0 success at Wendron United, and after a steady start, chances came at both ends with.

The visitors saw Josh Down shoot over after being sent clear by a flick-on from Chris Wildern, while the Holsworthy defence struggled every time Ryan Downing and Liam Higgins, who both went on to score twice, attacked.

The opening goal arrived just past the midway point of the half as the excellent Higgins cut in off the left and found the top corner with a fine strike from 20 yards.

Holsworthy had their best spell of the game just before the break but Down twice couldn’t hit the target when well-placed, and once Downing’s shot from just outside of the box went through Ryan Chadwick five minutes after the break, the hosts scored twice more in quick succession.

Five minutes later, a superb near 50-yard cross-field pass from centre-half Tom Crowe found Downing out on the flank who then somehow found the roof of the net from the edge of the six-yard box despite being on the touchline.

Higgins then converted from 12 yards after brilliant play from Downing, who had made it 31 goals for the season, but Holsworthy did at least have a consolation to their name 15 minutes from time when centre-half Callum Martyn curled a strike into the top corner of assistant boss Dan Balsdon’s net.

Hopkinson was delighted there was no hangover from Wednesday night’s Senior Cup semi-final.

He said: “The chat before the game was although we were going to be tired from midweek, to make sure we didn’t take our foot off the gas, and the boys were really good.

“I thought we dominated the majority of the game bar a five-minute spell before half-time, and we looked dangerous every time we went forward.

“We look forward to the return fixture on Saturday, although we know it’ll be a much tougher game up there with the smaller pitch.”

Magpies boss Kevin Squire admitted the hosts were dangerous but was disappointed with his side’s finishing.

He said: “It was a weird game as although they were very dangerous every time we went forward, I felt we had enough chances to get something out of it.

“But the difference was they took theirs and we failed to make their stand-in keeper work hard enough.

“We’ll be doing lots of shooting practice in the week and hope that we can get back to winning ways on Saturday.”

Kick-off at Upcott Field will be at 3pm.

CAMELFORD: Dan Balsdon; Olly Taylor, Dan Hocking (Tom Cowling), Tom Crowe, Cam Bidgood; Kenley Dyson (Jacob Ham), Ross Beare (Sam Watts), Josh Harris (Jacob Turner); Joe Parr, Ryan Downing, Liam Higgins. Sub not used: Bobby Hopkinson.

HOLSWORTHY: Ryan Chadwick; Jedd Peschke, Callum Martyn, Sam Hill; Rob Pearce, Aidan Slade, Jay Thomas, Josh Down, Gavin Carter; Ben Sharpe, Chris Wildern. Subs (all used): Lewis Haxell, Rory Simmons, Brad Ausden.

Men-of-the-match: Camelford – Tom Crowe; Holsworthy – Gavin Carter.