Sidmouth joint boss Kev Tooze could not hide his disappointment at the Vikings’ defeat to Alphington, who left Manstone Lane with all three points after a 2-1 Saturday afternoon success.
Trailing at the break, Rob Knight headed Town level early in the second half only for the Alphas to take all three points, scoring the winner midway through the second half.
Mind you, there were clearly mitigating circumstances for the narrow defeat as explained by Tooze who said: “It does not matter what level of the game you play at, but if you take to the pitch without six of your matchday squad you know you are in for a tough time.”
He continued: “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that the lads who stepped in did not give it their best shop for they certainly did just that. However, consistency of selection goes a long way to ensuring consistency of performance and if you have to make wholesale changes, as we did against Alphington, it does cause headaches.”
Despite the half-time deficit, there were no stormy words in the dressing room and the players responded to the half-time prompting from Tooze and his fellow joint-manager Danny Burwood.
Tooze explained saying: “We just told the lads that there was nowt between the teams and we could easily be the side leading and what it needed was a good start to the second half – and that is exactly what the lads delivered. We scored a cracking goal and from there it was a case of whoever got the next goal took the points and, sadly, and frustratingly, for us, it was them.”
Tooze continued: “Now we dust ourselves down and move on and look to win the next game.”
That next game is tomorrow’s visit of Teignmouth to Manstone Lane (3pm). The Teigns have only won one away game this season – a 3-2 success at basement side Liverton. However, the Teigns have also gone to the likes of Elmore and St Martins and departed with a share of the spoils.
Tooze says: “Look, they [Teignmouth] are set to be a real challenge. I never take past results as a guide. It’s all about the 90 minutes of us and them. Fortunately, we should have all six of the lads who missed the Alphington game and, when we are at full strength, we can offer a game to anyone at this level.”
Goalkeeper Ben Machin, skipper Chris Duchenski, Martyn Hancock and the Clay brothers, Danny and Ben, are all expected to return for the game.
Kick-off at Manstone Lane is 3pm.
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