A landmark home goal for Luke Johnson, a century of goals for the season and a 5-0 victory at home to St Blazey. Saturday should have been a good day for Falmouth Town.

But sadly that is not how this game will be remembered. Instead it will be remembered for several incidents of crowd-related issues, including a visiting supporter letting off a green flare during the game, stopping play for nearly five minutes.

Plenty has been said regarding the events off the pitch, but events on the pitch saw Andrew Westgarth’s side claim a deserved seventh win in eight matches, scoring their 100th goal of the season in the process.

They had to do it without several first-team players, too. Striker Matt Buchan was unavailable, while fellow frontman Jack Bowyer joined St Austell earlier in the week. Young midfielder Sam Pickup, named man of the match in their midweek win at Penzance, was playing, and scoring, for Cornwall’s under-18s in their 1-1 draw with Devon.

Right-back David Blizzard continued to be unavailable, while Ben Oliver, who deputised in the role on Wednesday, was ruled out with injury. Midfielder Ryan Chinn served the final game of his three-game suspension and substitute Tim Nixon was still carrying a knock.

It meant Will Harding was handed a first start for Falmouth Town, while fellow second-team players Harry McMellon and Sam Bromley were named on the bench alongside Nixon and Westgarth.

It didn’t seem to matter as the players on the pitch raced into an eighth-minute lead. David Broglino’s free kick was headed at goal and saved by Brodie Cole, with the rebound falling kindly for Johnson, on his 47th appearance for Town, to fire home and score his ninth goal for the club and first at Bickland Park.

It was also the 100th goal that Town had scored this season, achieving the feat in their 31st match of the season.

Goal number 101 came after one of the quietest first halves of the season, with Duff’s tame shot on goal providing Town’s only other strike of the first 30 minutes, while St Blazey were limited to hopeful potshots from distance – aside from Callum McGhee’s fine finish, which was ruled out for an earlier infringement.

But, in the 35th minute, Luke Brabyn used his pace to race past the defence – a theme that would continue later in the day – and meet a through ball before rounding Cole, firing into the net and wheeling away in celebration.

A quiet half came to an end, but the second half proved to be much more explosive, for several reasons.

St Blazey were keen to make an early impression with Jordan Hogan’s dangerous run and cross being well dealt with by James Ward.

But it would be Town who would assert their dominance for much of the remainder. Johnson forced two saves from Cole before Brabyn had an effort blocked and Ward’s header struck the bar, with Harding’s follow-up finish being ruled out, presumably for offside.

Jack Alexander then gave Ryan Barnes something to do at the other end before Brabyn had another effort denied, which proved to be the final action before a green cloud of smoke engulfed half of the stand at the Packet End.

A visiting supporter had set off a flare next to the F-Troop and appeared to goad the home support. Play promptly came to a halt while the offender left the ground, with St Blazey players helping to keep him away from the home fans.

This sort of action – leaving the pitch to confront a supporter – would normally lead to a booking or a sending-off, but referee James Long, who handled the situation superbly, decided that common sense should prevail and kept his cards in his pocket. The actions of Long and the St Blazey players may well have prevented anything worse happening in the stands.

It was disappointing to read several comments blaming the F-Troop, who have done well to reinvent themselves as a more family-friendly outfit in recent months, for the incident.

Hopefully people will not see this one-off incident and be put off from attending, instead remembering the roaring success of the previous weekend, when the F-Troop played an excellent part in a friendly, carnival atmosphere for hundreds of Falmouth Community Youth Football Club guests.

It took a few minutes for any kind of intensity to return to the game once it resumed, but when it did, it blew the visitors away.

Brabyn, whose quick pace saw him score the second goal, used the same trick in each of the third, fourth and fifth goals. The first, in the 84th minute, saw him stride clear down the left and cross to Johnson, who rounded Cole and slotted in for his second of the game.

The F-Troop had barely stopped cheering by the time Martyn Duff added a fourth less than 120 seconds later. He and Brabyn raced through a crater in the away defence, with the latter leaving it for the former to do just what Johnson had done two minutes earlier.

The lengthy flare delay meant that the fifth and final goal didn’t come until the sixth minute of added time, and it was Brabyn on hand to deliver the final blow of a devasting ten-minute spell, in which Town could have scored four or five as Luke Barner and Bromley came close.

But it was left to Brabyn to once again race through the deserted defence and chip the ball past Cole to round off an excellent afternoon for Town – and events off the pitch should not let that fact be forgotten.