Ottery St Mary Under-10s are, like all youth teams and indeed senior teams, lamenting the cutting short of the 2019/20 football season owing to the Coronavirus crisis.

However, the young Otters can look back on the part of the season that they did manage to play through, with a great deal of satisfaction and their continued development bodes well for the future of the club.

Things got underway for the team in early Autumn, when they made a trip across to our neighbours at Feniton.

The young Otters played with genuine passion and no small level of ability and while the result did not go their way, they had hit the ground running in terms of the season.

Under-10s head coach David Goldthorpe says: “Over the year we have rotated playing time to give the youngsters equal time on the pitch. The players have trained with real enthusiasm and played with both spirit and determination whenever we could get games played. It was a frustrating season for us all with the rain that left so many games having to be postponed.

When we did play, we won some, lost some and drew a few, but what shone brightly through was that the young players were all enjoying what they did- training and playing, always with big smiles on their faces. What’s more there was very genuine mutual respect shown with regards to opposition teams. Yes, it’s been an absolute pleasure for myself, together with fellow coaches, Martin and Phil and I am so looking forward to next year when we continue to guide this young Ottery team through the football age groups.”