Ottery St Mary sit proudly top of the Fresha League Division Six at Christmas after an unbeaten start to their campaign, writes Steve Birley.

Saturday’s 4-2 Washbrook Meadow success over Kentisbeare was a seventh successive home victory and leaves the Otters seven points clear.

However, despite his clear delight at being top at Christmas, Otters boss Mike Dawe is keen to remind his players that nothing has ever been won at the midway stage of a long football season.

Dawe says: “Being top at Christmas is of course marvellous for me, my wonderful players and the club. However, as good as that sounds it’ll count for nothing if we do not go on and finish the job by being amongst the promotion berths come April. I’d like to thank the team for their considerable efforts at this stage of the season. They have shown me great respect and have clearly all brought into what I want us to be doing. We now need to remain focus during that will be a difficult period for being top makes you a target and all opposing teams will want to be the one that beats us first!”.