Sidmouth Town 2 Pinhoe Lightning 5 (League)

The boys came so close to a massive upset with this excellent display, having been trounced 9-0 early in the season by the unbeaten league leaders, writes Dickie Seldon.

At 2-1 up, with an hour gone, Sidmouth looked on for the win, but some unstoppable, classy goals from Pinhoe near the end gave the scoreline an unbalanced look come the final whistle.

The gameplan was one of soaking up the inevitable pressure by playing five in midfield when the Pins were in possession, putting pressure on the ball and giving no time to get their attacking game going. Then, to make the most of the set-pieces which came their way;- something that the lads had scored a lot of goals from this season.

The boys carried this out, to the letter, for most of the game, with skipper Doug Still leading by example. A lucky rebound put the Pins ahead. Sidmouth soon levelled the scores after a Blackmore corner was cleared to the edge of the box to Still, who controlled and smashed the ball home from 25 yards.

After a series of free kicks, Blackmore’s delivery caused chaos in the box, and centre-half Dan Hulin bravely headed home for his fifth goal of the season.

Sidmouth were denied their win in the last 20 minutes, as a shocked Pinhoe sprang back into life to equalise with a sensational strike from 35 yards, soon followed by more classy strikes that keeper Lines had no chance with. Ashtari broke through to blast over the bar, before coming off with a calf injury, as the game slipped away. But this was a performance to be proud of, and one which was borne of sheer hard work and effort.

This Saturday the boys are at home again with a league game vs Hemyock. Kick off at The Pop is 10.15.