Beer Reserves began 2019 with a victory and moved to fifth place in the Macron League Division Three table after a 3-2 victory at home to Tedburn St Mary, writes Mike Adkin.

On a cold and cloudy, but dry day, both sides served up some entertaining football, and the visitors will be bitterly disappointed not to have taken anything from the game.

The Fishermen took the lead on 12 minutes with a well-taken goal from Billy Long. Five minutes later, Ryan King put Beer 2-0 ahead, with the Tedburn glovesman unable to stop a thunderous shot flying in under the crossbar. However, the visitors were playing some neat possession football at times, and it wasn’t a surprise when they pulled a goal back five minutes later to make it 2-1 at the break.

In the second half, the Fishermen committed the cardinal sin of dropping deeper and allowing Tedburn more space in midfield, resulting in an equaliser on 60 minutes. However, all the drama was reserved for the lengthy period of stoppage time. Beer keeper Henry Bartlett was lucky to remain on the field after bringing down an opponent in the area after a poor clearance.

The resultant penalty was then blasted well wide by the Tedburn centre half, whose misery was compounded a couple of minutes later when he brought down Beer’s Taylor Rooke on the edge of his area.

Beer midfielder Ollie Padget stepped up to strike the perfect free kick around the wall and inside the keeper’s right post, resulting in a fine 3-2 victory for the Fishermen’s second string.

Match sponsors, Bay View Guest House, Beer, opted for Alex Padget of Beer as the Man of the Match after his fine all-round performance and aerial domination.

On Saturday (January 12), Beer second team travel to Clyst Valley Reserves for another Division Three game. Kick-off is at 2.15pm.