Beer Albion crashed out of the Devon Premier Cup on Saturday losing 7-3 at home to South Devon outfit East Allington, writes Richard Honnor.

After a great display the previous week against Exmouth Amateurs, the Fishermen came down to earth with a bang, serving up an abject display against a good but not outstanding East Allington side.

The Fishermen were without several experienced players, namely injured keeper Mark Rooke, the unavailability of centre backs Andrew Foster and Pat Baldwin, and player-manager Richard Walker who rested himself. Their leadership and quality was sorely missed, but there were still enough experienced players on the park but on the day failed to provide the required direction and encouragement for the younger elements of the team.

The game started quietly and it was 22 minutes before Beer’s first attempt on goal, a shot by striker Jacob Clode after a decent 5-man move. This spurred the visitors into life, and two minutes later they took the lead when forward Ben Robey cut in from the left wing and hit an unstoppable shot from 25-yards past Beer keeper Mike Westlake. 5 minutes later, the Fishermen conceded an unnecessary foul on the edge of the box and midfielder Tom Rowden’s low strike managed to evade defensive wall and keeper for a 2-0 lead.

The East Allington forwards were carving through the Beer defence at will and came close to adding two more quick goals, first hitting the woodwork and then Rowden missing the target from close range. But in a rare attack on 39 minutes the Fishermen clawed their way back into the match. After good approach work, Clode provided a neat lay-off to midfielder Simon Smith who finished clinically from 15-yards to reduce the arrears.

Any momentum Beer might have gained towards the interval was interrupted by a long stoppage after their full back Josh Harrison suffered a serious knee injury and had to be stretchered off and later taken to hospital by ambulance. When the game re-started Beer went 3-1 down through lack of concentration, when Robey’s shot was deflected into his own net by Chris Long,

The Fishermen started the second period totally lacking in confidence, and went further behind on 55 minutes when a free kick floated in from the left to the far post was put away by Simon Hannaford.

Three minutes later it was 5-1 when Rowden scored his second and the visitors added a sixth on 70 minutes when a innocuous-looking free kick delivered by Andy Davies squeezed in at the near post.

There was a glimmer of hope for Beer, when a five minute spell brought two goals to reduce the arrears to 6-3. First a miscued shot from Luke Morrison trickled over the line on 75 minutes after a goalmouth scramble and then on 80 minutes Long’s shot was deflected in by Andy Hunt. Any hopes of extra time were quickly dispelled two minutes later when Robey completed his hat-trick with a simple side-foot past Westlake to make the final score 7-3 in favour of East Allington.

Match Sponsor East Devon Physiotherapy at Sidford awarded the Man of the Match to East Allington’s Ben Robey and Beer’s best player on the day was Simon Smith. This Saturday (November 12), Both Beer sides are away from home. The first team travel to fellow-strugglers Bow AAC in the Macron League Premier Division and the second team journey to Alphington thirds for a Division Five encounter.