Fluxton march on as Fresha League Division Seven promotion nears.

Otterton 0, Fluxton 5

Driving rain, fading light from the first kick and a skiddy but true surface, ripe for Fluxton passing, writes Alex Paget.

James Santer and Mike Bott found their Fluxton feet; we always knew they had green and white hearts, but not until tonight had they poured them out on the pitch!

Bott’s visionary 40-yard crossield pass found Santer’s feet; the left controlled and the right dispatched into the corner.

A wonderful goal disallowed by a lineman’s flag which wielded disproportionate power for the duration of the first half. It had been raised to cancel another goal before the teams cowered for a couple of minutes at half time. Theo Burgess had started to turn purple by this stage and was carried from the pitch like a piece cardboard at the final whistle.

Realizing that artistry was a forlorn ambition in a game marshalled by a lemon-zesty lineman’s flag, Flux went ugly, savaging the Otters’ jugular as the latter futilely savaged Fluxton’s legs.

Five close-range goals, none of them memorable enough to trouble this writer’s descriptive powers.

Santer, O Paget, T Rapps, Bott and the prolific OG all notched.

Met Office 1, Fluxton 8

This was perhaps the strangest game of the season to date for Fluxton, writes Alex Paget.

One to the good early on, Fluxton inevitably got bored and let the weather boys have the ball for the remainder of the first half.

Reinvigorated by a strawberry shoelace between eleven, it was two soon after the break.

But this was no fun! The weather men were allowed to halve the deficit and a couple of near misses later, the harbingers of rain seemed destined for a point, if not three. 20 minutes to go and Fluxton were rattled.

And then it started; 20 minutes of football to grace the Gods!

Olly Paget added two more to complete his hat-trick of delicate but deadly accurate finishes; the last an 18-yard waist-high volley that billowed the side-netting as inevitably as an erroneous forecast of sun.

Ali Buchan, playing as an unpermitted second striker, scored four goals to round off passing moves that would have made Jose Gomez ‘Gallito’ blush. Perhaps the finest saw Tom Rapps, scorer of the opener, collect a 40-yard ball over the left back’s head, march forward and find a late-arriving Buchan at the back post to side foot high into the far corner. Apparently their goalkeeper was amazing but he didn’t have a chance with any of the eight!

Tedburn St Mary 1, Fluxton 2

A by-now weary Flux outfit arrived to find the pitch a knee-deep bog, writes Alex Paget.

Furthermore, the visitors had clearly packed their side with players who do not usually take to the pitch for the Tedburn Reserve aside!

Mike Bott opened the scoring and it was deserved. However, the rest of the half belonged to the hosts and they levelled with virtually the last kick of the half.

Matty Sercombe could do nothing but what a performance from the man in pink. Always a shot-stopper and one-on-one expert, he has developed his claiming, kicking and six-yard box domination to become arguably the ‘best keeper in the section’.

Three or four times, he kept Fluxton level against the odds. The second half belonged to the Mid Devon side for twenty minutes. The midfield battle was swinging their way and they had chances to steal the lead.

Andrew Butcher grew a foot for the second half and was aided by Sam Fisher and Tristan Long in maintaining parity. Fluxton clawed their way back into the game and started to have the better of things. The winner came with 20 minutes to go, Mike Bott adding a clinical second. The rest of the game was the best of Fluxton. Forging ahead with the character so typical of this team when, and only when, it’s tight.