Ottery St Mary chalked up a 14th victory in 15 Fresha League Division Six matches with a 5-0 triumph at Silverton that sees them now hold a healthy dozen point lead at the top of the table.

In seeing off the Mid Devon side the Otters passed 75 goals for the season – this in just 20 outings – and leading scorer Adam Harris bagged a brace taking him to 30 for the season.

Nick Searle, Sean Ford and Phil Paddison were the other scorers. However, one player stood out as explained by Otters boss Mike Dawe who said: “Matt Daly was once again outstanding. He has been central top all our progress this season and is stand-out example for the younger players of just what you need to succeed at this level of the game. Despite being closer to a half century of years than all his team mates – and he won’t thank me for making it public, but the next ‘big birthday’ is only a couple of years away – and yet he continues to put in a consistency of performance that puts many players, over half his age, to shame!”

The Otters were good value for the win, though their general play was not as fluent as normal as they struggled to come to terms with the small pitch in Mid Devon that also had a slope and was very soft.

Dawe said: “It wasn’t pretty, but then it was never going to be given the conditions. We did what we had to do and that, as a coach, is all you can ask of your players in such circumstances.”

The victory means that the Otters are blazing a clear trail to their target of promotion and Dawe has not given up hope of possibly climbing a division or two if they can continue this current run of success through to the end of the campaign.

Dawe says: “There is a precedent where teams have been successful and then been allowed to climb more than one division, I certainly see Ottery St Mary FC as being worthy of higher status than our current level. There’s no doubt that if we can see this term out in the style which we are going about out business right now then we’ll attract greater interest in terms of support and players wanting to join us. This club has been ‘in the football shadows’ for far too long and I have a mission to steer us much higher up the football pyramid. Yes, of course, we need to keep our feet firmly on the ground. No one is more aware than me of that fact. However, I also believe it’s important to have targets and goals and mine is to get the Otters onto a higher footing on and off the pitch.”

This weekend Ottery are due, weather permitting, to host a Woodbury side that they beat 2-1 when the side’s met on match day two of the campaign.