Sidmouth Town Reserves remain unbeaten in their Macron League Division One season after banking a hard-earned point in their visit to University Reserves.

The student side dominated possession on their superb wide pitch at the University sports hub, Topsham.

The Vikings set up to be solid and to a man they showed a desire not to be defeated against all the odds

Scott Hughes playing as a lone striker worked tirelessly and was a great outlet at times. Ferenc Bodor was always a threat on the counter-attack and Will Jenkins was

playing through the pain barrier as the medical bag was used time and time again!

The ever-popular Alex Raistrick went close with a header, and, in the middle of the pitch, the tenacious Ben Farrington was snapping away at the hosts’ ankles

Skipper Damien Armes was leading by example and was caught with an awful challenge midway through the second half, but bravely carried on.

Matt Colson had his hands full with a pacey winger and stopped him playing before withdrawing at half-time to be replaced by Theo Burgess who carried on where Colson left off

Ollie Jarrett was also tested, but stuck to his task and will have learned a lot from this game

The centre half pairing of Mike Pidgeon and Anthony Griffiths refused to be beaten, and last ditch tackles by Pidgeon several times frustrated the University forwards.

However, the tackle of the day was made by Griffiths as the student number 10 was about to race clear ‘Griff’ timed his challenge to perfection, taking the ball off him and wiping him out fairly, at the same time!

Adam Bartlett produced a few excellent saves and grew in confidence as the game went on. Special mention should be made of the part played by youngster Matt Skelding who called in at late notice and was part of the team running the line and appreciated that it was too tight to bring him on in.

Town’s Paddy Thomas said: “This was a special day for the club as the draw was a victory in the sense that hard work, spirit, togetherness, heart and a willingness to not let the team down was apparent throughout from the 13 players who represented Sidmouth Town FC.

“The management trio of myself, Gary [Bargery] and Brendon [Willey] were rightly proud of all the players as they showed tremendous spirit that will hopefully see positive results in the future.”

This Saturday (November 5), Town Reserves have a Devon Senior Cup tie away at Witheridge with the tie kicking off at 2pm.