MANAGER Darren Edwards believes his Liskeard Athletic side will go into Saturday's Westinsure Cornwall Senior Cup quarter-final against St Austell at Lux Park on a high after a stunning league win over Plymouth Parkway.

The Blues produced one of their best performances of the season in seeing off a physical Parkway 3-0 at Lux Park last Saturday.

And Edwards said: "Coming off a strong result like that, I can think of no better feeling to go into our Senior Cup quarter-final.

"We have not only beaten one of the so-called top teams in the Peninsula League, we have beaten them emphatically and it sets us up nicely for the cup tie."

But Edwards expects a tough test against St Austell. He said: "I know quite a bit about them and we know we'll be in for another difficult match.

"In the quarter-finals of cup competitions anything can happen but I know that if we can reproduce the sort of performance of last Saturday, we will win the game.

"It would be nice to think we could make a cup final appearance to go alongside a strong finish in the league.

"We have already done fantastically well to get to the quarter-finals of the Senior Cup and the Throgmorton Cup."

After a blip in results over the Christmas period, when they lost three successive games, Liskeard have bounced back to form and remain firmly established in the top six of the Peninsula League premier division.

Edwards said: "We didn't panic when things weren't going right for us. We tried to keep doing the right things, and I knew we would come through that bad patch.

"We now look strong again, and well organised, and we have stopped conceding goals. I think that's clean sheets in our last three or four games now."

One development which could have disrupted team spirit at Liskeard was the shock transfer last week of top scorer Ryan Richards, who joined Parkway in time to make his debut for them at Lux Park on Saturday.

Offer

Richards decided to join his fourth club of the season, having previously been with St Blazey and Torpoint, after receiving a better offer from Parkway than Liskeard could give him.

But Edwards said: "Ryan's move has not affected us, as we showed on Saturday. I must admit I don't understand his decision.

"Why would you leave a team like ours, in the top six and still in two cup competitions? And a club that has looked after him so well this season."

And Edwards believes Liskeard may already have a replacement for Richards in his squad. He said: "Richard Maddison came in against Parkway and had a fantastic match on his own up front.

"He ran the show for us, so maybe he will make that position his own.

"I am always looking around for players who would improve the squad but we wouldn't bring somebody in for the sake of it.

"We've got a big squad as it is and the players have responded brilliantly to everything we have wanted to do at this club. We could not have achieved such an improvement in just over a year as we have done."

Elsewhere in the Senior Cup on Saturday, Saltash United host Falmouth Town, who won 5-3 when the teams met in the Throgmorton Cup earlier in the year.

Bodmin Town, who have won the competition for the last two seasons, are away to Penryn Athletic, while Truro City Reserves face Porthleven at Treyew Road.

Full weekend fixtures guide on Page 96.