Sidmouth Town 1 Teignmouth 3 Town slipped to another defeat in what became an unusual day for all concerned at Manstone Road.

If it wasn’t tough enough for Vikings boss Paddy Thomas with four regulars unavailable, plans were further hit when Craig Badcock pulled his hamstring in the warm-up and so the only available individual to warm the bench was Town veteran and club stalwart Simon Hudson!

The visitors took the early initiative, created a couple of reasonable chances, but failed to take advantage.

At the other end chances were fashioned as well with the usually reliable Mike Stamp putting a header wide before Hudson, on as an early change for injury victim Joe Nield (another hamstring), also put a header just wide of the mark.

suffering another hamstring injury, put his header narrowly over.

The deadlock was broken on 20 minutes when the visitors claimed the lead.

The Vikings responded well with a Sam Banks shot fizzing across the goalmouth, but, as has been the case so often this season, the final touch was not forthcoming and the chance went.

Right on the half time whistle Teignmouth doubled their lead when Burgess was given no chance.

Town made some tactical changes at the interval and certainly looked far more comfortable in the second half.

The game was clearly heading towards the third goal of the day being the pivotal one.

Unfortunately for the Vikings faithful it fell to the South Devon side to claim an unassailable three goal advantage on 65 minutes.

Town once again responded well and a trio of chances went begging before Stamp again powered a header goalwards and this time Andy Isaac was on hand to tap into an empty net.

For Isaac it was a goal to mark his first Town start since May 2012!

Both sides went close before the referee decided to call time on a very good Teignmouth side’s deserved victory.

Town boss Thomas said: “ They (Teignmouth) are a very good footballing side and it’s testimony to the way we played that we managed to create a number of gilt-edged chances, as they did. On the day they certainly deserved to win. From our point of view we simply have to take on board that, at this level, we cannot expect to only play for half a game and take something from the contest. The players deserve great credit for the effort they pout in, but alas effort alone can only take you so far.”

On Saturday Town play a speedy return with the South Devon side when they travel to Teignmouth (3pm).