Ottery St Mary were beaten 4-0 at Pinhoe, but were most certainly ‘masters of their own downfall’, and manager Dave Fairweather knows exactly where it all went wrong.

The Otters boss said: “Pinhoe beat us in the car park, it’s as straight forward as that! We went to Exeter without five players, all of whom would, under normal circumstances, bag starting places. It was clear to me when we arrived in Exeter that certain players were looking around, seeing who was not there and clearly accepting they were beaten before the game kicked off.”

He continued: “I don’t enjoy seeing that for I am a great believer in team sprit and good strong mental attitude taking you far in matches.

“The week before against University we did not play particularly well, but we got a result through good strong mental attitude.

“That all went absent without leave at Pinhoe where we were unlucky in as much as we scored both the goals that had us 2-0 down at half-time and then two more goals in the final 15 minutes finished us of. I strongly believe that the players we sent onto the pitch were more than capable of getting a result for us. The fact they did not was simply down to a lack of belief.”

Tomorrow (Saturday) the Otters host Sampford Peverell and two of the five missing last week – James Gosney and Ben Dawe – return to the fold and there are high hopes that a third – last season’s top scorer Tom Collins – will also be back from his travels visiting Universities.

Fairweather says: “Sampford Peverell are an established Division Four outfit and so it will be another tough game for us. However, we need fear no one in this division if we apply ourselves. If we don’t then we have to fear everyone. I know which attitude I want the lads to play with on Saturday!”