The weekend football programme did not go to plan for Devon’s professional clubs, as Plymouth Argyle, Exeter City and Torquay United managed just one point from the nine available.

The Pilgrims slipped to a third successive home defeat against an Ipswich Town side chasing automatic promotion in the Sky Bet Championship.

In a game lacking clear chances, Ipswich grabbed the lead on the hour when a hopeful strike took a huge deflection off Brendan Galloway for an unfortunate own goal. The visitors then sealed their win with a strike from Torbay-born Kieffer Moore.

The defeat leaves Argyle in 16th but only two points above the relegation zone in an incredibly condensed bottom half of the division.

Argyle Head Coach Ian Foster told BBC Sport: "We don't like losing games of football, particularly here at Home Park.

"It's a tough one to take because, against good opponents, we were in the game for long periods, were carrying a threat and our defensive work has been fantastic.

"We're just disappointed with the manner of the goal, it's a really unfortunate one for us - the shot's going wayward and it's hit Brendan [Galloway] and ricocheted into the goal.

"My only criticism of the players is we probably needed to bounce on that point and respond a bit better - I thought we were flat after that, I get it because they've done ever so well and the manner of the goal can hurt you psychologically."

Next up for Argyle are away games at Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn Rovers before the return of former Pilgrim boss Ryan Lowe to Home Park when Preston North End visit on March 16.

Exeter City might not be fully looking over their shoulders but certainly giving a cursory glance after they went down 2-1 at promotion-chasing Peterborough United.

The Grecians are six points clear of the League One drop zone and have been vastly improved since the turn of the year, but will need to pick up three or four more wins from the last ten games to guarantee safety.

Exeter will take heart from their display at a powerful Peterborough side, as they recovered from conceding an early goal to Ephron Mason-Clark and deservedly drew level through Tom Carroll.

Vincent Harper had a big chance to give City the lead before Posh grabbed control in the second period and won the game with a Kwame Poku strike on 68 minutes.

Exeter manager Gary Caldwell spoke to the club website: "There's disappointment in the result but pride in the performance.

"After conceding early, that can be hard for the players mentally but they kept going and did what they asked of them to get level.

"The second half was two teams trying to win and I just felt there was a ten-minute period where we kept giving the ball away and invited pressure which is when they then scored.

"But, huge pride and there are plenty of aspects we can take into next week's game."

In the turbulent world of Torquay United, a 1-1 draw at Weymouth was a reasonable result but the Gulls now have a yawning gap of nine points to the play-off places in the National League South.

However, the bigger priority at Plainmoor remains securing a viable owner to take the club forward after the announcement that the Gulls had called in administrators.

In that context, the performance at Weymouth was pretty good, although interim manager Aaron Downes felt his side should have won the game.

 “There were some really good moves throughout the game from us and that’s not me saying I’m happy with the point, because we’re not,” he said. “The boys worked ever so hard and deserved to win the game.

“We had some really good opportunities, we were the better team on the day, we knew Weymouth would never give up and we had to show a little more composure.”