FALMOUTH Town manager Andrew Westgarth praised his side for responding to last week’s defeat to Wadebridge Town ‘in the greatest way’ by winning twice over the last few days.

Westgarth cut a much happier figure in his post-match interview following Saturday’s 5-1 win at home to Penzance in their latest South West Peninsula League Premier West match, in which Luke Barner scored a hat-trick before substitute TJ Walter netted twice late on.

Looking ahead to this week’s matches against Porthleven and Penzance in the aftermath of last week’s defeat, a furious Westgarth asserted that ‘it can’t be any worse than that’ in reference to the 3-2 defeat at home to Wadebridge Town he had just witnessed.

But seven days on and his Town side have scored a further eight goals and are six points better off after coming from behind to win 3-1 at Porthleven on Wednesday night, before running out 5-1 winners on Saturday.

“You couldn’t ask for any more than that, I’ve been really delighted with the boys,” Westgarth said. “I’m very demanding on the lads and they know that. If things aren’t going right, I’ll let them know and they responded in the greatest way.”

An action-packed final ten minutes of the first half saw David Broglino have a penalty saved after Josh Turner was sent off for Penzance, with Barner soon opening the scoring for Town before Gary Matthews levelled with a strike from distance.

But Town moved up the gears after the break, with Barner adding two goals to complete his treble before TJ Walter came off the bench to score the final two goals.

“You’ve got to be delighted to win 5-1, if anything it could have been more,” Westgarth said. “Poor old Broggy [Broglino], he’s hit the bar, hit the post, had a goal ruled out and he’s missed a penalty.

"Disappointed to concede again with what was from our point of view a sloppy goal. It would have been nice to get a clean sheet, but I thought we dominated the game.

“It was a bit similar to the Porthleven game, I thought once we scored, I couldn’t really see much of a way back for Penzance, and I thought second half it was one-way traffic.”

The turning point in the match came seven minutes before half-time when Josh Turner hauled down Luke Brabyn in the box, earning himself a red card and handing Town the chance to open the scoring from the penalty spot.

But Broglino, who had a spot kick saved by Wadebridge ‘keeper Rob Rosevear seven days earlier, saw history repeat itself as Magpies goalkeeper Mikey Flores dived to his left to palm away his strike.

Broglino relinquished penalty duties in the second half to allow Barner to complete his hat-trick from the spot after Olly Walker had been fouled, But Westgarth stood by his regular taker and insisted he has no problem with him taking the next one.

“I feel for Broggy, it happens,” he said. “I used to be on penalties, and you miss penalties, it happens. It’s easy to shy away from it and I thought he showed great character to take it and I was backing him to take it.

“I’ve got no problem if Broggy says to me next game: ‘I’ll take the next one.’”

Barner was deservedly named man of the match for his superb hat-trick, and it was he who opened the scoring in the first half at an important time, giving Town the lead with a fine individual goal minutes after Broglino’s penalty was saved.

“I thought the goal was brilliant,” Westgarth said. “Broggy’s put a lovely ball through and I thought Barner showed great composure, he’s basically broken [the defender’s] ankles with how many times he’s turned him, and great composure to wrongfoot the goalkeeper and I think he might have even broken his ankles after he sent him the wrong way.

“It’s a sloppy part of our play to go in [at half-time] at 1-1 and it changed the team talk slightly, but I said to the boys: ‘If we carry on the way we’re playing we’ll win this game of football,’ and it’s no shock we’ve gone on to win 5-1 comfortably.”