Helston Athletic manager Steve Massey delighted with Falmouth win

Mark Goldsworthy, Matt Bye, Ryan Beattie, Alex Wharton and Scott Beattie scored as Helston strolled to victory in their opening Dave Gardner Memorial Tournament match.

"I was well pleased with all of the players' performances," Massey said. "I had plenty of square pegs in round holes on Wednesday [against St Day] and it was the first time the 17 players had played with each other. But I thought the cohesion and the energy levels and our fitness levels looked really, really good and we looked like we had plenty of round holes in round pegs yesterday [Saturday].

"At the moment, and not just after the Falmouth game, there's been a real buzz during the training sessions and I think everybody is well aware of what we're capable of doing this year."

Massey praised youngsters Harrison Jewell and Lewis Tonkin, who had an excellent game despite playing 80 minutes for the club's under-18s in a pre-season friendly against Rosudgeon the night before.

"I was only going to play them for basically half an hour each to bring the Beattie boys [Ryan and Scott] on," he said, "but I just thought they did it so well, they were loving it.

"We had six aged 18 or under [on the pitch] and I think our future is looking really bright."

Harrison Jewell (right) put in a good performance in midfield

Helston enjoyed a comfortable win despite having six first-team players unavailable, with Liam Eddy, Neil Slateford, Ryan Chinn, Josh Storey, Phil Cattran and Kai Cornish all absent for various reasons.

Their return will see a huge competition for places, with Massey admitting that one of his most important jobs this season may be to keep the whole squad happy.

He said: "My biggest task is going to keep everybody happy, but I'll say: 'guys, you're never going to have a better chance of actually winning a trophy or winning some medals this year, so why would you go away and look somewhere else?'

"I've got such a strong squad that I've got, and I would be doing it myself, I've got managers of other clubs in my players' ears already saying: 'I'm going to play you,' and I'm hoping these guys are intelligent enough to think: 'well hang on a minute, do I go and play with a side where I know maybe I'm not going to win anything, or do I stay here and actually be a part of something where there's a good chance of actually picking up a medal or two?'"

Massey also revealed that striker Eddy, who limped out of Wednesday’s pre-season friendly win at home to St Day, will only face four weeks on the sidelines.

Eddy, who was playing his first match for Helston’s first team since re-joining the club from St Austell, had scored as the Blues overturned a 1-0 deficit to lead 2-1 at the break, but was carried from the field early in the second half after suffering a twist to his knee.

Massey said: “The diagnosis is there’s nothing torn or ripped with his ligaments, it’s a sprained knee and he was very fortunate."

“Edds is targeting the game before the Vase in about three or four weeks but we’re talking about four weeks, which is excellent.

“I went to bed on Wednesday night thinking: ‘bloody hell, all these best laid plans’. It’s taken me three seasons to get him over here and I play him for 45 minutes and he gets injured, so it was a huge, huge positive for us the other day to hear the good news.”

Massey praised his striker for his diligence in getting his injury assessed as soon as possible. Eddy stayed in the hospital until the early hours after the St Day game, before returning first thing in the morning for X-rays, and then travelled to Liskeard for an appointment with a knee specialist, where he got the diagnosis at 2pm – less than 18 hours after sustaining the injury.

“There’s not many players that would have done what Edds did, and how committed he is, not just to himself as a player but with the club,” Massey said.