Wendron United manager Jack Greenwood expressed his disappointment at his side's defeat to Falmouth Town on Boxing Day, but was pleased to see a good crowd for what was the inaugural Kevin Williamson Memorial Shield match.

Goals from Luke Brabyn, Tim Nixon and Jack Bowyer secured victory for Andrew Westgarth's side amid heavy rain and strong wind at the Underlane, with Town becoming the first team to lift the shield, which is in memory of former Wendron chairman Kevin Williamson.

"It's been a great in terms of the crowd here and the fact that the game actually went ahead," Greenwood said. "I thought, particularly the first half, that it was quite a decent game, it was very competitive, but aside from that the result is very disappointing. It's still a league game, there's still points up for grabs and it's still local rivals so we're disappointed.

"I thought the first half an hour we were OK and actually they didn't really control the game to be 2-0 up at half time, but they were just more clinical and a little bit more savvy than us. I thought we didn't really play to the conditions and we looked a bit overawed as the half went on and then the third goal has obviously killed us."

The South West Peninsula League fixture doubled up as the inaugural Kevin Williamson Memorial Shield game, which will be played for between the two teams each year in memory of Kevin, who died in February.

A bumper crowd, bolstered by several of Falmouth's F-Troop, helped to raise more than £350 from a charity collection for the Cornwall Air Ambulance, who attended to Kevin and flew him to Treliske Hospital when he collapsed at the ground following the Dron’s Cornwall Senior Cup victory over Porthleven on February 8.

Town coach Charlie Davis was formerly on the books at Wendron under Kevin, and is close friends with current boss Greenwood.

Greenwood said: "I'm disappointed in terms of result but pleased with how the club have conducted themselves again today and hopefully we've had a good result for the air ambulance.

"Hopefully we've started something that goes on for long after I'm doing this and Charlie [Davis] and Westy [Andrew Westgarth] are doing this and is a constant part of the fixture list now. Massive thank you to Falmouth for participating in it and for all of their cooperation, they brought a great crowd with them today and hopefully raised lots of money and put some money behind the bar. We're very grateful to them and we'll return the favour next year.

"We're glad to be part of it and the history of the first one but Kevin won't be very happy that our name isn't on the trophy yet!"

The biggest moment of the game came in the 30th minute when Town goalkeeper Ryan Barnes made a crucial save to deny Rory Jarvis when the Wendron man was through on goal, with Town going up the other end and doubling their lead seconds later through Tim Nixon.

"The difficulty then is the game is balanced on a knife edge at 1-1; it's a completely different game than 2-0, it's almost out of sight against a good side like that.

"But we still made mistakes from there, Rory not putting it in the back of the net isn't the reason we conceded a second. We tried to win the ball on the halfway line, Danny [Stedman] could have done slightly better with it and I thought the defence, once they got through us, left it to Danny.

"Rory missing the chance is one thing but I still don't think we dealt with the counter attack from there particularly well, but they are a good side, they do counter quite well."

Wendron were still hanging on at 2-0 but Bowyer's third goal killed the game off in unfortunate circumstances for the home side.

Bowyer came off the bench to replace Luke Johnson in the 65th minute and scored the killer third goal seven minutes later, with his cross from the right touchline squeezing between Wendron 'keeper Dan Stedman's legs and and into the far corner.

"Apparently Danny is expecting it to bounce up into his arms and it's just hit the deck and gone straight through," Greenwood said. "He's obviously gutted with that but it's the life of a goalkeeper, these things happen don't they. If you make mistake like that then they invariably get punished. It's just that it was a crucial time in the game and it probably killed the game for them and gave us a mountain to climb, whereas had we got the next goal it would have been very interesting.

"It's one of things, I think nine times out of ten on a better day the ball bounces up into his arms and we spring a counter attack from there probably."

Despite falling to defeat in their final game of 2019, Greenwood reflected on an excellent year for his team on the pitch.

"I think it's been a fantastic year for us, the latter end of last season was good and the Senior Cup run was excellent," he said.

"This year has been very tough. I don't know where it puts us today but we started the day in tenth in the top league in Cornwall and we're competing. We've got excellent facilities, we've got floodlights now and the club is going from strength to strength on and off the pitch."