Sidmouth Town Res 1, Chagford 0

Division Two

The Vikings’ second string entertained bottom of the league Chagford at Manstone, giving them their first outing for over a month.

With groundsman Ken Mortimore working tirelessly to prepare the pitch it was touch and go that the game would go ahead, but after a pitch inspection Manstone Lane got the thumbs up.

It was the away side that created the first few openings but wayward finishing saw Craig Fitzhenry untroubled in the home goal. Town slowly started to get to grips with the conditions with Doug Still making a series of raids down the left which saw the ball flash across an empty goalmouth eachtime. Further pressure from the Vikings saw Greg Chaplin create three fantastic chances from corners that had the Chagford goalie clutching at thin air.

The visitors were looking dangerous on the break and the Vikings’ defence had to concentrate to keep them at bay. The home side were denied what looked a certain penalty when Jordan Stickland’s shot was apparently handballed, but the referee turned down the appeals.On the stroke of half time Town created a glorious chance when, after good work by Alex Martin, Paris Pinney somehow managed to head over with the goal at his mercy.

After the break the Vikings took the game to Chagford but could not break through a resolute defence and it was Fitzhenry, making two fantastic saves, that kept the Vikings’ goal intact. At the opposite end Town kept plugging away and were eventually rewarded when Pinney was put through and drilled his effort past the visiting keeper to claim all three points for the Reserves that sees them climb to seventh in Division Two of the Devon And Exeter League.

First team manager Paddy Thomas said: “We were poor and fortunate to win against a decent side. Three valuable points is what we needed but I was disappointed with our performance overall.”

?This Saturday the Reserves are at home to Dawlish with the first team travelling to Crediton United.