Sidmouth Town and Newton Abbot Spurs shared four goals in an entertaining game at Manstone Lane.

The Vikings’ hopes were dealt a huge blow before the game with the late withdrawal of strikers Freddie King, Jamie Orchard and Shaun Densham, the latter injured in the warm-up.

Town started on the front foot and were awarded a penalty inside the first two minutes of the game when a rash challenge by a visiting player on Tyler Dobinson left the referee with and easy decision to make.

With regular penalty take Densham not on the field up stepped skipper Jamie Newberry to expertly slot the ball home to give his side the lead.

By the 20th minute the away side had found their composure with central midfielder George Dandridge pulling all the strings and deserved their equaliser scored by skipper Mark Brooke, powerfully heading a crossed ball past the helpless Steve Jones top make it 1-1.

Ten minutes later Sidmouth were awarded a second penalty after another needless challenge in the box and, once again, teenager Newbery, showed a cool head on young shoulders to drill the ball home and make it 2-1.

Five minutes before half-time the match saw its third penalty, this time one for the visitors, but unlike the first two, the third was not netted as the usually lethal Adam Dyson fired his shot against an upright.

There was still time left in the half though for Dyson to atone as he punished a poor judgement call from keeper Jones to fire the ball home to leave the sides all square at the break.

Sidmouth were marginally better after the break and had their fair share of possession as they dealt better with teenager Dandridge, Spurs had a couple of speculative efforts but nothing to give Jones in goal too much to worry about.

There was plenty of endeavour in the second half from both teams but the game lacked that extra bit of required quality for either side to go on and win the game. That additional quality nearly arrived on the 85th minute by Sidmouth’s Ollie Binion, Binion hit a rasping shot from 25yards out that smashed against the cross bar with the keeper beaten all ends up, had it gone in it would have been a little harsh on the visitors as a draw was the right result.

Sidmouth From: Jones, White, Newbery (C), D.Jones, Bowditch, Clarke, Wellman, Binion, Swingler, Dobinson & Antat. Used Subs Badcott. Unused: Stapelton & Densham.