Ottery St Mary entertain Crediton United Reserves at Washbrook Meadow tomorrow (Saturday) with the Macron League Division Three game kicking off at 3pm.

The game marks the start of a hectic 21-day period during which time the Otters will play seven matches. Five of them are league games and two are cup quarter-final ties. Of the seven games, five – including both cup ties – are home matches.

With the season into its last few weeks, Otters boss Dave Fairweather is keen for his team to win as many of the remaining games as possible.

He says: “There’s so much still to play for. I have not given up on us finishing high enough to warrant promotion to Division Two next season and we have the two home cup ties which offer semi-final ties for the winners.”

One of the forthcoming seven games is a re-arranged home meeting with Lympstone, and it’s a game that Fairweather, understandably, feels should not have to be played.

He explained saying: “The game against Lympstone was meant to have been played on a Saturday and we were preparing for the match when, just before 1pm on the match day, we got a call saying they cannot raise team and, in my book, that surely means we get the points as they are unable to fulfil a fixture. How that then becomes a re-arrangement I do not know. However, it is what it is and we will just have to take the decision on the chin and look to bank the three points over 90 minutes of action!”

For the home meeting with Crediton United, Fairweather has a number of players out. Tom Hayes and Dan Jewell are both unavailable and Adam Harris completes his suspension – something he would have done had last week’s game at Pinhoe not fallen to the weather!

There are also three long-term injuries with James Gosney, Jordan Wilkinson and Callum Hutchings all unlikely to pull an Ottery shirt on again this season.

Fairweather says of the Crediton game: “They [Crediton] will be a big test for us. Of course, being a second team they have the opportunity, on occasions, to field a much-changed side, but I see their first team are in action so we’ll probably face a young – but still talented – side. I am keen for us to return to winning ways. Our last league game was the narrow defeat to University and I do feel that this game will be similar to that one, so we will need to be at our best to get the result we want.”

The Otters are also at home next Tuesday (April 10) when they host Axmouth United in a Grandisson Cup last eight tie.