Sidmouth Warriors 2, Pinhoe Pikes 1 The two sides met for the second time in five days and once again there was just a single goal between them at full time.

With Pikes having won the previous encounter Warriors knew that only a win would keep their top three hopes alive.

Warriors made a flying start and took a first minute lead when some excellent pressing from Mead and Buckland saw the keeper spill the ball into Buckland’s path and he needed no second invitation to thump it home!

This settled the Warriors down and for the next 20 minutes they dominated with Mead, Cooke and Silk all going close.

The visitors fought back, but were thwarted by some exceptional collective defending from Jones, Woodruff, De Gruchy and Hayman.

On the two occasions they did get a sight of goal, Perez made outstanding saves.

With McCullin and Gosse working tirelessly in midfield it freed up Cooke to dictate play, but try as they might Sidmouth couldn’t get a second and half-time arrived with just the one goal between the teams.

Injury meant a change with Hayman replaced by Sparkes and Mead slotting back into defence.

Both sides fashioned chances in the second half, but neither could net until, with 15 minute to play, McCullin won the ball in midfield, laid it off to Cooke who swivelled and shot with no back lift with his right foot to rifle the ball home from 20-yards!

Chapman-Coombe was then introduced to play a deep midfield roll to help shore up the defence, his strong tackling and excellent passing helped stifle the visitors response.

Pinhoe bagged a fortunate goal with five minutes to go, but the Warriors did not panic and closed the game out very well.

Team; Ollie Perez, Kade Hayman, Ethan Mead, Matt Jones, Tom Woodruff, Joe Buckland, Jack Silk, Toby De Gruchy, Sam Sparkes, James McCullin, Louis Chapman-Coombe, Ben Gosse, Alex Thomas and Tom Cooke.