Ottery St Mary put visiting Halwill to the sword, beating the visitors 7-0 with what proved to be an outstanding all-round performance from the Otters.

Tom Collins crowned a Man of the Match contribution with a hat-trick and there were also a brace of goals from the impressive Tom Williamson. The other Ottery goals were scored by Jordan Rogers and Ben Rushton.

Manager Dave Fairweather said: “It was not the best of performances, but it’s hard to be critical when your team net seven times! That said, the second-half performance was much improved on what we served up before the break. In all honesty, had we had our finishing boots on I fancy we could have scored an awful lot more, but I am certainly satisfied with the seven.”

The victory lifts the Otters into fourth spot in the Fresha League Division Five table and a second successive promotion now looks very likely!

A top three finish is highly probable, but to win the title they’ll need to rein in an Uplowman Athletic side that put a big dent in Otterton’s promotion hopes and now sit a dozen points clear of the Otters.

Both Uplowman and Ottery have played 13 matches, meaning they each have 11 to play.

The Otters begin a run of four successive away matches with tomorrow’s trip to Priory and the fourth of the away stint is a visit to Mid Devon for what could be a season-defining meeting with Uplowman on Easter Saturday, March 26.

It’s set to be a busy Easter for the Otters, for 48 hours after the Uplowman game they host a Kentisbeare side that currently sit a single point above them having played one game more.

Tomorrow sees the Otters face an in-form Priory, who were 8-3 winners last weekend at Starcross

Fairweather says: “We seem to battle well away from home (the Otters have lost once away all season in league and cup). The pitches at Hamlin Lane (where Priory play) are likely to be still quite soft and they will not be of the condition that our preferred passing game commands. However, our away form is good and the guantlet has been thrown down to the lads. The fact is that the way other results have gone of late we have worked ourselves into a very healthy position and I’d certainly expect, given the quality in our ranks, that we’d be able to accrue enough points in our final 11 games to ensure that we sit in a top three berth at the end of the season.”

Tomorrow the Ottery Reserves will be led by Stefan Gordon and they have a home game against Fresha Nine high-fliers Exmouth Spartans.

Gordon will have midfielder Chris Ambrose making his Otters debut in midfield.

Fresha League Division Five

P W D L F A Pts

Otterton 17 12 2 3 57 23 38

Uplowman Athletic 13 11 1 1 50 14 34

Kentisbeare 14 9 0 5 50 25 27

Ottery St Mary 13 8 2 3 39 16 26

Feniton 16 8 2 6 58 41 26

Priory 14 7 3 4 49 34 24

Alphington 16 7 2 7 45 49 23

Awliscombe United 16 7 1 8 36 41 22

Starcross Generals 17 5 3 9 37 65 18

Sandford 11 4 3 4 22 28 15

Beer Albion 17 5 1 11 27 36 15*

Halwill 14 2 1 11 20 67 7

Hatherleigh Town 14 0 1 13 24 75 1