Ottery St Mary Reserves went down 2-0 at home to Stoke Arms in a Fresha League Division Eight meeting.

With regular Reserve team boss Dave Fauirweather still away on his honeymoon and the senior side without a game, Mike Dawe took charge of the side.

The Exeter side won the match 2-0, a defeat that leave the Otters sitting bottom of the table.

Dawe said: “It was disappointing in as much as I felt we could have got something out of the game. However, what is very apparent its that there is a clear lack of belief in the team, and that’s a shame because there is undoubtedly some talent in their ranks. The one thing that stands out is their lack of fitness, something that they could all improve on and, to be fair to the lads, a number of them were working on that when we trained on Tuesday night. The other major failing they seem to have is a general lack of awareness which of course means they end up playing as individuals and not as a team!”

The Reserves have a tough engagement tomorrow (October 10) when they travel to Mid Devon to take on Bickleigh. It’s a classic top-versus-bottom encounter with the Otters having no points from 3 games while Bickleigh have already banked 15 points from their seven games and have won all four home matches so far, scoring 13 goals while conceding just two.

When the teams met at Washbrook Meadow on August 28 the Otters were beaten 10-0!