Ottery St Mary recorded arguably their finest result of their short Scott Richards Solicitors Devon League South & West life as they shared six goals with title chasing Kingsteignton Athletic at Washbrook Meadow.
The meeting with the team second in the table outfit came just seven days after the Otters had made table-topping Buckland Athletic work mighty hard before they were able to bank the points after a 2-0 success.
Ottery were set up to operate with no out-and-out centre forward with Jack Hobday used in the number 10 role which, in turn, meant that the talented Connor Swingler was then given free licence to push forward and look to get at, and beyond, the visitors back line. The new-look formation was complemented by the addition of Sam Pyne and Tom Bushby to work the respective flanks.
It all worked a treat as the Otters scored three times in the first half! It was Swingler who opened the scoring in the
10th minute and the lead was doubled by a 23rd minute goal from Pyne and, when Hobday, who orchestrated things superbly from the ten role, added the third, the Otters were 3-0 up with just seven minutes of first half time remaining.
Howeve, as happens so often in this game, the visitors, who were clearly shell-shocked by the Otters efforts, managed to sneak a goal back just before the break to make their half-time team talk that much more positive.
As had been thought might be the case, the late first half goal galvanised ther visiting side who made a strong start to the second hald adopting a very different approach.
To their credit, the Otters kept them at arms length, but the pressure eventually told and two goals restored parity to the game.
The visitors also received what many observors considered to be a 'fortuitous' penalty award, but Otters glovesman made a wonderful save.
Ottery were still able to go toe-to-toe with the title-chasing side and, indeed, with five minutes to go, had worked a superb move that saw them 'get in behind' the Kingsteignton back line bearing down on the visiting goal in a one-on-one situation when, to everyone's surprise the whistle blew!
To almost everyone in the ground there was genuine surprise at the 'offence' and the chance for Ottery to score a fourth and take all the glory, was gone.
Tomorrow (Saturday) the Otters entertain a Roselands side that beat them 3-0 in the teams first meeting this league season with that game played in South Devon in early November.
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