Otters boss: “It’s in our own hands, but we do face four huge ‘cup final’ encounters

Ottery St Mary at home to Sandford. Ref shsp 14 19TI 1518. Picture: Terry Ife (Image: Archant)

Leading scorer Corey Ringer scored a hat-trick – his third on the day – taking him to 38 for the season; an impressive return from 28 starts!

Jordan Wilkinson scored another to take him to 27 for the campaign [only two players have scored more Division Three goals than him this year, teammate Corey Ringer (38) and Lympstone hit-man Kyle Bassett (28)] and skipper Curtis Winchcombe got the other Ottery goal.

Otters’ boss Dave Fairweather said: “The final score certainly flattered them [Sandford]. You could make a case for each of their three goals being more a case of our error-making so that’s something we can work on. We could, perhaps should, have scored more.

“That said, at this stage of the season it’s all about winning and getting the points and we collectively played very well in this game.”

Ottery St Mary at home to Sandford. Ref shsp 14 19TI 1510. Picture: Terry Ife (Image: Archant)

The Otters have four games to play and just two teams to face. What’s more, the two teams they meet are arguably their closest rivals for the divisional top honour!

There’s no game for the Otters this Saturday (April 6) and so they are next in action the Saturday after (April 13) when they play their penultimate home league game, taking on Lympstone. The week after it’s a trip to Winchester followed by a Monday, April 29, home meeting with Winchester and they wrap things up with a May 4 visit to Lympstone.

Fairweather says: “Given the way the fixtures have fallen, it’s actually done us a favour, for now we face what are four cup finals and so it is very much the case that we have our destiny in our own hands.”

As for not having a game this weekend, Fairweather says: “I am not too concerned.

Ottery St Mary at home to Sandford. Ref shsp 14 19TI 1506. Picture: Terry Ife (Image: Archant)

“In fact, I think it may help our cause as we have just had four games in nine days with the two cup ties and a Saturday off will, hopefully, give everyone a breather before these four last massive games.”

Ottery St Mary at home to Sandford. Ref shsp 14 19TI 1486. Picture: Terry Ife (Image: Archant)

Ottery St Mary at home to Sandford. Ref shsp 14 19TI 1481. Picture: Terry Ife (Image: Archant)

Ottery St Mary at home to Sandford. Ref shsp 14 19TI 1476. Picture: Terry Ife (Image: Archant)

Ottery St Mary at home to Sandford. Ref shsp 14 19TI 1474. Picture: Terry Ife (Image: Archant)