Clevedon Town had a frustrating afternoon at the Everyone Active Hand Stadium this Saturday, needing a win to secure third place they came up against a resolute Torpoint Athletic side and it took a magnificent save from the newly crowned supporters player of the season keeper James Dunn to keep out a penalty kick and rescue a point for his side.

Assistant Manager Mark Selway said afterwards, “We must look at it as a point gained thanks to James’ fantastic penalty save.

“Torpoint were solid and sat deep, they ran the clock down well and every clearance went over the stand or 70 yards down the pitch.”

“From our point of view, we missed Joe Teall, Freddie King and Alex Camm today and lacked a bit of creativity in midfield.

“Owen Punselie had three or four really good strikes on target from 20 yards or so, and the keeper made some good saves, but we weren’t able to pick up those little tap-ins in the 6 yard box.”

The first of those typical Punselie piledrivers came after six minutes from Brad Probert’s layoff and with the ball taking a slight deflection Torpoint keeper Ryan Rickard did well to push the ball wide for a corner.

North Somerset Times: Town's Owen Punselie tested the Torpoint keeper all game but to no avail.Town's Owen Punselie tested the Torpoint keeper all game but to no avail. (Image: pitchero.com/clubs/clevedontown)

Ten minutes later an exchange of passes between Punselie and Westlake saw another Punselie shot from distance tipped over by Rickard but Town couldn’t take advantage from the corner.

Just before half time Rickard was out to dive at Sol Kent’s feet as he broke into the box from Kieran Ireland’s ball, another Punselie shot was blocked and Kent headed wide from Hayer’s cross wide on the left, keeping it goalless at the break.

Clevedon swapped Kent for Harlee Vozza at half time and the first chance of the second period came when Ireland was felled unfairly but Punselie’s free kick went over.

In a rare Torpoint attack, CJ Pritchard shot wide from an unmarked position and from their next foray up field on 71 minutes Callum Kingdon was penalised for impeding Darren Hicks in the box and the referee pointed to the spot.

Substitute Ryan Richards, who had only just come on, stepped up to take the penalty with a reputation of always scoring against Town and things looked bad for Clevedon, but Dunn went down low to his right to push the ball away and keep the scores level at 0-0.

Clevedon looked to benefit from the let off in the remaining 20 minutes but could not find the finishing touch that had eluded them all game, and the match ended in a goalless draw.

Town remain in third place in the table with one game left after gaining a point from their match against Torpoint, and now face champions Helston away on Saturday, coach leaves the ground at 9am, for their last game of the 2023/24 season.