It’s very much a case of ‘opportunity knocks’ for a number of Ottery St Mary footballers tomorrow when the Otters are in Macron League Division Three action away at Tedburn St Mary (3pm.

The ‘opportunity’ arises out of the fact that a number of regular players are unavailable for the game and so Otters’ boss Dave Fairweather will use the wider squad and again dip into the club’s Under-18s.

He says: “It’s not ideal when so many are unavailable - and it’s for a variety of reasons - but the bottom line is that we have strength in depth and are now also reaping the benefits of having an Under-18 side with young players eager to ‘seize their chance’.”

He continued: “Gone are the days when a player could miss a Saturday and feel confident it ‘didn’t matter’ as he’d be straight back in - that’s no longer the case and, from a managerial point of view, it’s the perfect scenario.”

Last Saturday Town made progress in the Devon Senior Cup with a 4-1 Washbrook Meadow success over Dartmouth United Reserves.

Leading scorer Corey Ringer scored twice and there were also goals from Tom Badcott and Jordan Wilkinson.

The Otters boss was delighted with the overall performance. He said: “It was as good as we have played all season.

“Despite the difficult conditions we were on top of our game and the most pleasing aspect was that we did things we had worked on in training and it really does not get much better than that when you see your players putting together moves and situations that you have worked on in midweek.”

In the next round of the cup the Otters have been given a mouth-watering home tie against old rivals Kentisbeare, who are currently flying high in Division One.

The sides have already met this season with the Kents emerging the winners when the pair contested the final of the Bill Slee Cup in the days leading up to the start of the current campaign.

The cup tie will be played at Washbrook Meadow on Saturday, November 3 (2pm).

The Ottery Under-18s went out of the County Cup, beaten 3-2 at Okehampton where their goals were scored by Callum Crow and Sam Pyne.

The Pyne goal was an impressive 30-yard strike by the teenager, who has his player sponsorship this season with South Devon-based Surfing Cow ice cream.

There was no action last weekend for the Ottery ladies with their match being called off over concerns of falling trees in the high winds.

The troublesome trees have been looked at and the ladies will try again this Sunday to play their Graddon Vending Devon Women’s Cup quarter-final tie against University of Plymouth (2pm).

There is also Sunday action for the Ottery Under-18s, who make the short trip across to Exmouth to meet Brixington Blues in a Devon League fixture (2pm).