Ottery St Mary are now the proud owners of an updated floodlight system that will mean the Otters can stage midweek floodlit matches this coming season.

It’s been a real team effort, with particular help coming from Exeter-based Thrifty and local companies, Bader Electrical, ADC Electrical, JPC Tree Care, C Plant and CEF Honiton, all playing key roles.

In other news coming out of the club, the Otters have announced that their matchday programmes next season will help create funds for a couple of charities.

For the coming season the programmes that are produced for cup matches will help raise funds for The Wallace and Gromit Children’s Charity and the league match programmes will help raise funds for Hospiscare.

The Otters have shown themselves to be great supporters of local charities in recent years and they remain keen to speak with any other local charities who feel they could benefit from the club’s support.

The best way of contacting the club is via their well-presented Facebook page.

Ottery St Mary were 4-2 winners in their opening pre-season match, which saw them in action at Dartmouth AFC.

Last year’s leading scorer Corey Ringer wasted no time in getting back onto the goal trail as he notched a brace, and the other goals came from Johnny De Cruz and Jordan Wilkinson.

There was an impressive first appearance in an Otters’ senior shirt from 16-year-old Aidan Pearcy, which augers well for the future.

The Otters are back in action tomorrow (July 28) when they visit Bampton and they are on the road again on Wednesday night (August 1) when they travel to Manstone Lane, Sidmouth, for a meeting with the Sidmouth Town Reserves.

The Otters play their first home friendly next Saturday (August 4) when they will take on Premier Division outfit Upottery on the Washbrook Meadow top pitch.

Otters boss Dave Fairweather is delighted with how things are moving, on and off the pitch. He says: “Chairman Mike [Mike Ringer] is the driving force in terms of off-the-pitch work. He has boundless energy and is really helping to propel us forward. Our job, on the pitch, is to try to match that progress and I was delighted with the opening friendly win at Dartmouth where, a few blips allowing, we played very well and, for a first outing of a new pre-season, it was all very encouraging.”

On the new floodlights, Fairweather says: “It’s such a massive stride forward for us as a club. A lot of hard work went into getting the funding all together and now we have lights, which will mean we cannot only offer midweek football for our senior side as well as the Under-18s and ladies, but we will also be able to offer our ground to host representative and other games – it’s a huge step forward for us. What’s more, we have recently been awarded a Devon FA DIY grant, which allows us to move on with plans to upgrade the boiler system in our showers. Everything is falling into place nicely.”

The Ottery boss continued: “The lads have been training very well and I was delighted that we had 20 at last Tuesday’s session.”

With the Otters having three games in the coming week there’s plenty of opportunity for players to impress the boss.

Fairweather says: “Obviously, the sooner we can get consistency in terms of our general play, the better. That said, we deliberately arranged lots of pre-season games to give-players the opportunity to show what they can offer.”