Falmouth Town 2, Tavistock 3

JACK Crago's hat-trick was enough to give Tavistock victory in the South West Peninsula League Premier's top-of-the-table tussle at Bickland Park on Saturday.

Crago scored twice late in the first half to give the Lambs a two-goal lead at the break before Jack Bowyer pulled one back for Town midway through the second half.

But Crago sealed his hat-trick soon after with David Broglino's late penalty only proving to be a consolation as Town drop to fourth in the table.

The game was end-to-end in a tight first half with Broglino striking the crossbar in the closest effort of the first half hour, before the visitors broke the deadlock in the 33rd minute when Crago lobbed the ball past Town 'keeper Ryan Barnes at the second attempt.

Luke Brabyn came close for Town shortly after when he forced Josh Oak into a super save, but the Lambs found themselves two up on the stroke of half-time when a swift attack resulted in Crago firing into the bottom corner from the left side of the box.

Tavvy looked for the killer third goal after the break with long distance efforts from Crago and Josh Robins keeping Barnes on his toes.

But Town were back in it when Bowyer rose to guide Broglino's free-kick past Oak to halve the deficit with 30 minutes still to play.

The hosts were now the ones in the ascendancy with Brabyn firing agonisingly wide before Joe Cooper headed over from another free-kick.

The dominance resulted in controversy when Bowyer sprinted into the box before hitting the deck under pressure from a Tavvy defender, but the referee chose not award a penalty and instead show Bowyer a yellow card for simulation.

That would come back to haunt Town as Crago wrapped up his hat-trick with a tap-in at the far post from Conner McAuley's cross to restore the two-goal lead with just 15 minutes left.

Town refused to lie down and pulled another back in the 90th minute when Broglino scored from the spot after the referee awarded a penalty for a handball on the line.

But Tavvy held on to claim all three points and close the gap on leaders Plymouth Argyle to nine points with five games in hand.

Falmouth: R Barnes, D Blizzard, O Moody, J Richards, J Cooper, J Ward, L Johnson, D Broglino, J Bowyer, J Annear, L Brabyn. Subs (unused): S Pickup, T Nixon, R Martt, A Westgarth.

Tavistock: J Oak, T Elliott, J Robins, B Davies, M David, W Daw, L Brown (C McAuley 67), D Hallett, L Prynn (L Irwin 81), J Grant, J Crago (B Williams 88).