In their first home game of the season Beer Albion 1st’s suffered a heavy 6-1 defeat at the hands of Topsham Town on Saturday, writes Richard Honnor.

Despite a decent first half showing, the Fishermen were completely overwhelmed in the second half and can have no complaints about the result. It has to be said in mitigation the Beer were missing half-a-dozen first team players. However, it was disappointing that only two of those missing were injured; the others were fit but had other commitments.

Beer started brightly and the first half was evenly contested. In fact, the Fishermen took the lead on 16 minutes after Topsham’s defence failed to deal with a Chris Long free kick. Centre Back Richard Walker found himself in space on the right of the six-yard box and coolly slotted the ball home into the far corner.

Town equalised on 27 minutes with a slick counter-attacking move. A long ball through the middle was taken early by the Topsham striker giving Beer keeper Michael Westlake no chance. Beer might have taken the lead 5 minutes later when lively striker Seth Wakeley got behind Topsham’s defence only to see his effort saved well by the keeper coming off his line.

As the half wore on, Topsham started to dominate possession and the home side’s defence fought well to keep scores level. One blemish was that mid-fielder Chris Long was booked for a reckless challenge a minute before the break. On the stroke of half time, Joe Adkin just failed to get his head on a fiercely driven free kick from Long.

After the break, Topsham continued to dominate possession playing some delightful football. Keeper Westlake made a couple of good saves before the visitors deservedly went in front on 50 minutes when the ball was poked home from close range after the Beer defence failed to deal with a corner.

Then Long who had been one of Beer’s most influential players was dismissed after receiving a second yellow card for disputing the referee’s decision to turn down a penalty shout when Wakely was slightly impeded by the Topsham keeper. This proved to be the turning point and the visitors piled on the pressure, scoring four more times on 56, 65,73 and 79 minutes to complete a 6-1 rout. Whilst there can be no arguments about the scoreline, Beer will be disappointed that four of the away team’s goals came from failures to deal with crosses or corners into the six-yard box.

Beer are back in home action this Saturday (September 5) when they entertain Clyst Valley in the East Devon Senior Cup.

Kick-off is at 2:15 at the Furzebrake and the match sponsor is Beer Fish and Chips, Fore Street, Beer.