Ottery St Mary suffered a fifth defeat of the Macron League Division Four season when beaten 3-2 by Uplowman.

Uplowman led 1-0 at the break, but goals from James Gosney and Tom Collins saw the Otters into a second half lead before two late goals gave the hosts all three points.

Ottery boss Dave Fairweather said: “It was the tale of our season so far. In patches we played extremely well and showed that we are just as capable as they are. However, we were undone by the same old defensive mistakes that we are now making far too often for my linking.

“It is so frustrating that we clearly do not seem to be learning from our mistakes. It seems to me that it’s the same players, making the same mistakes and it has to stop if we are to finish in a top four slot this season.”

The loss ends any outside hopes of the Otters forcing their way into the top three.

However, with Thorverton, Uplowman Athletic and Kentisbeare now clear in the race for promotion places, the Otters must target finishing as ‘the best of the rest’ in the hope that a fourth place finish to the season will be good enough for them to go up once more.

This Saturday the Otters entertain Pinhoe who beat them 4-0 when the pair met in Exeter back in September.

Fairweather says: “We were well below our best that day in Exeter and I am quite sure that Pinhoe will find us a very different proposition this time round.”

In terms of the player availability for the game, the Otter boss said: “Callum Rogers and Tom Williamson are away and Tom Purdy remains on the injury list. Other than that we have a clean bill of health and I would like to think that we will deliver the sort of performance befitting of a top four team.”

The game is the final one of 2016 for the Otters who will reach the end of January with just five games left in their campaign.

After the visit of Pinhoe the Otters will have just two more home games to play with Uplowman and Otterton the only sides yet to come to Washbrook Meadow this season.