Sidmouth Town Under-12s showed their growing spirit by coming from 2-1 down to defeat Heavitree Youth 3-2 with striker James Randall scoring all three of the Town goals, his second successive hat-trick.

Town were a little sluggish at the start of the contest, but once they found their feet they began to dominate and the Heavies goal led something of a charmed life before the pressure eventually told.

The opening goal was initially crafted by a quick-thinking ball out from keeper Leo Gribble to left back Reece Hext, who took one touch and played a delightful diagonal ball which split the Heavitree defence allowing James Randall to use his pace to run onto and fire beyond the goalkeeper for what proved to be the only goal of the first half.

After the break there was more of the same with Sidmouth the dominant force, though they were unable to turn their considerable dominance into further goals and, as so often happens in such situations, they took advantage of a defensive lapse and equalised with an instinctive shot.

A wonderful save from Leo Gribble seemed to have denied the Heavies a second, but, unfortunately for the Vikings glovesman, his save saw the ball hit the inside of the post and went back across the goal line where it was adjudged to have crossed the line to see the Exeter side into a 2-1 lead!

Parity was restored when a superb pass from central midfield by Dion Skinner found Reece Hext and his terrific cross to the neat post was turned home by James Randall.

With five minutes left, the Vikings went in search of all three points and they got mighty close when a Reggie Reed free-kick found the prolific Randall whose header flew fractionally wide of the mark.

There was still time for Josias Drew to find Randall with a fine pass from defence that Randall carried towards the Heavies goal before he was brought down. The youngster picked himself up to take the resultant free-kick and he bent the ball around the wall and into the net to complete a second successive hat-trick.

Vikings’ coach Bryn Clapp said: “The win was no more than we deserved. The lads once again kept playing and showing great team spirit for every minute of the contest. Each and every one of the players played a part in a terrific all-round show.”