Beer Albion remain third in the Devon Football League after convincingly defeating Mount Gould 6-0, writes Richard Honnor.

The Plymouth-based outfit were a shadow of the side who remained undefeated throughout last season until the very last game when the Fishermen beat them in the DFL League Cup final.

The highlight of the match was a fine hat-trick from Finley Rooke, who was moved up from midfield to centre forward in the absence of the injured Josh French.

The Fishermen looked sharp from the first whistle and went 1-0 ahead after nine minutes. Danny Bailey in his first full game for Beer forced a corner on the left and George Harwood delivered the perfect ball into the box for the unmarked Rooke to head home.

Playing open passing football, Beer continued to dominate proceedings and went 2-0 ahead on 22 minutes through Tony Pinder.  Bailey split open the Mount Gould defence with a superb cross-field pass to Pinder on the wide left. Finding himself in plenty of space, Pinder cleverly lobbed the ball over his marker and fired the ball into the bottom corner from 18 yards.

The Fishermen’s third goal came on 57 minutes with Bailey once again playing a key part. A throw-in was played into him and he turned his defender and threaded a ball across the six-yard box, where Finley Rooke, at full stretch, placed the ball low into the far corner.

Mount Gould’s best chance of reducing the arrears came on 64 minutes when they caught Beer in the counter and a fine cross into the box was volleyed narrowly over the bar. But two minutes later man-of-the-match Rooke completed his hat-trick to put Beer into an unassailable 4-0 lead. A poor clearance from the Gould ‘keeper was intercepted by Rowe who passed quickly forward to Rooke. The centre forward had the time and space to set himself and fire a clean strike into the corner from 20 yards.

The Fishermen added two late goals to complete the 6-0 victory. Jake Rowe scrambled home a well-deserved goal from close range on 80 minutes. Then, substitute Alfie Matthews wrapped up proceedings on 89 minutes with a bizarre goal which the referee allowed to stand, despite an ongoing scuffle on the halfway line.