Roundup of junior football

The boys returned to League action with a shock as they found themselves two goals down in the first five minutes of this exciting local derby, writes Richard Seldon.

To their credit they fought themselves back into the game and dominated much of the second half, even though goalkeeper Dec Lines had to keep his team on level terms near the end with a magnificent penalty save.

Manager Seldon had warned against lethargy and complacency after a poor run in the New Year last season, but, when Ottery scored in the first minute and kept the pressure on with a penalty, it looked like the team had decided to ignore the advice!

The introduction of the jet-heeled Henry Ho gave the team an outlet as his pace down the right gave the Otters something to worry about. Down the left, Will Sanders came more into the game. Ho put in a lovely cross for Sanders to control and smash high into the net for an excellent goal.

The second half saw the Vikings looking much stronger with full-backs Joe Griffiths and Isaac Thomas defending with commitment and using the ball intelligently to set up more raids down the flanks. Arya Ashtari and Doug Still started winning the 50/50 tackles in midfield;- releasing the ball into space where Sanders and Ho were giving their full-backs nightmares. Still had a penalty claim turned down, but the Vikings were soon given another chance from the spot after the referee spotted a shove in the box after a corner. Will Jenkins, such a reliable penalty taker, remained cool under pressure to drive the ball home to level the scores.

The final half-hour was end-to-end football, with the Vikings playing down the Ottery slope as legs tired on the heavy surface. Man of the match Sanders came close; jinking down the left then cutting into the box after another exchange with Ho, then saw a speculative volley fall just wide. Toby Seldon sent in a couple trademark long-range free-kicks and also put a left-foot shot wide, but, with a few minutes remaining Sidmouth were shocked as a counter-attack saw the Otters’ forward go down under a challenge from Riordan Deehan-Jackson, who certainly appeared to have played the ball. The referee pointed to the spot, but keeper Lines was equal to the task, diving on the driven pen to the relief of the Sidmouth support. The previous week’s penalty shootout practice was clearly beneficial for Declan!! 2-2 was a fair result after such a poor start.

This Saturday sees the boys in Cup action against Crediton, kick-off 10.30 at Newton Pop.

Sidmouth Raiders 3, West Exe Rangers 2

The Raiders headed to Exeter to play West Exe Rangers, determined to improve on the bad lose at the beginning of the season, writes Martin Spiller.

From the start, Sidmouth had the ball on the attack, giving West Exe’s defences and goalie plenty to do. Westexe kept three in defence to stop all Sidmouth’s attempts to score. After 20 minutes, West Exe were awarded a penalty. Oran Bramble saved but they scored on the second attempt.

After the break West Exe passed the ball with confidence and soon had a second goal.

but Raiders had also grown in confidence.

Thomas Burhop came out of defence to take a corner, which was returned to him and gave him the chance to swing in the first Sidmouth goal.

It was not long before a gathering near goal saw Ben Goodier's hard work pay off with the second goal. Manager Martin Spiller would have been happy with a draw, but, minutes before full time, a flying ball from Max Peacock, hit Cian Warren’s chest to make a well deserving win of 3-2.

Sidmouth U8 Warriors 7 , Honiton Demons 3

Sidmouth convincingly beat their Honiton rivals. Samuel Rice opened the scoring, Louis Silk then added two goals in succession.

The Warriors were playing some great football with great defending by Benedict Teague. Silk turned provider and set up Ben Chapman to score. Joe Ashby scored a well deserved goal and Silk completed the scoring with a further two goals.

Sidmouth Warriors 8, Honiton Devils 0

A superb team performance gave the Warriors another outstanding win.

The Warriors were so dominant that goalkeepers Reuben and Alex Bennett were not called upon. Scorers for the Warriors were Samuel Rice 2, Louis Silk 2, Ben Chapman 3 , Stanley Richardson 1. The Warriors played with energy, determination and bags of skill. The rest of the season will be very interesting.

Sidmouth TFC U12 Warriors 3, St Martin’s 1

Sidmouth Warriors U12’s battling spirit, dogged determination and flashes of quality helped them beat St Martins in a very hard fought contest at home in the league, writes Simon Jones.

The first half saw very few chances at each end with both defences on top. Woodruff and Hayman were outstanding in the centre of defence and Man of the Match De Gruchy never let St Martin’s useful winger get past so it was goalless at the break.

The second half started with the Warriors beginning to create down the right. St Martin’s then thought they’d scored with a breakaway goal, unfortunately for them both players had strayed offside.

The Warriors kept focused and tight with Lowe starting to get on top in midfield. From one of his 50/50 battles he found Cooke who set Silk free, he beat his defender and from 20 yards struck a sweet shot into the top corner to the joy of his team and supporters. Within 5 minutes the impressive Cooke found himself on the half way line one against one with his defender as he got to the box he outmuscled his opponent and as the keeper advanced slotted the ball into the bottom corner for a terrific goal. Just when it looked as though that had made the game safe a cross came in from St Martins which was unluckily diverted in by one of the Warriors defenders. Great credit goes to the Warriors who didn’t let the goal affect them and when Sinker scored from an acute angle with 2 minutes left it was no more than they deserved.

A 3-1 victory making 2 wins on the trot and a mid table position. Well Done Boys.

Team; Ollie Perez, Toby De Gruchy, Matt Jones, Tom Woodruff, Kade Hayman, Joe Lowe , Jack Silk, Ben Gosse, Elliot Perez, Tom Cooke , Ethan Mead, Joe Buckland, Leon Sinker and Alex Thomas.

Sidmouth Town Vikings Junior Raiders U9s 2, STVJ Warriors 2

The Raiders recovered from two goals down to earn a deserved draw against fellow Sidmouth side The Warriors, writes Alan Hallett.

The Warriors deserved their half time lead but the Raiders hit back with a superb team effort. Every player worked hard and as the passing improved the Raiders threatened more and more. CJ Abbot pulled a goal back early in the first half and minutes later Lewis Rowden smashed a half volley in from close range to earn the draw in a good game.

Sidmouth Town Vikings Junior Raiders U9s 1, Okehampton 0

Raiders grabbed a slightly fortunate win in an excellent game that saw both sides create chances. Okehampton had the upper hand for spells of the first half but the Raiders defending kept them at bay. After the break the Raiders came to life and, with Noah Raffell beginning to dominate in defence, CJ Abbot in midfield and Samuel Burhop up front imposing themselves on the game, the Raiders took the lead thanks to an own goal from a Lewis Rowden corner.

As the game wore on The Raiders created the better chances Burhop and Thomas Rowan were unlucky with late efforts.

Sidmouth Town FC U10s 8,

Millwey Blue u10s 0

The scoreline does not show how close a game this was at half time, Sidmouth winning the half with a super strike from Dylan Lascelles, writes Rob Fowler.

Sidmouth settled in the second half and passed the ball a lot better scoring seven goals without reply.

Five goals were scored by Alex Mitchell, and one each from Sam Pyne and Connor McNamara Campbell.

There were outstanding second half performances from Campbell and George Salter.

Sidmouth are away to Millwey Purple next Sunday.

Sidmouth Town U13s 22, Axminster 1

Chairman’s Cup quarter final

Sidmouth Town U13s entertained Axminster on Sunday in the quarter final of the Chairman's Cup.

With Axminster turning up with just eight players Sidmouth's pre-match confidence was well justified as they ran out very comfortable winners by the score of 22-1.

It took Sidmouth about 15 minutes to open the scoring, mainly due to poor finishing and good goalkeeping, but once they did score, the floodgates opened.They went into half time 9-0 to the good, goals scored by Ed Doble 3,Alex Stone 2,Freddie King 2, Joe Miller and Jamie Newbery. With the match already won, Sidmouth played the second half with eight players to balance the teams out and try to make a game of it.

Sidmouth scored more goals with 8 players than they did with 11, winning the second half 13-1 with the goals being scored by Miller 3, Tom Orchard, Connor Murphy 2, King 2, Ben Miller, Jonny Surtees 2, Stone,and Newbery. The biggest cheer of the morning came when Axminster scored their consolation goal with parents and supporters of both teams cheering and clapping.

Manager Sean Murphy said: "I felt sorry for Axminster and their manager as I have been in that situation. Fair play to him as he didn't try to postpone the game. I'm not sure if the scoreline is a Sidmouth Town record but it must be close,we just took full advantage.”

although we did miss maybe half as many chances as we scored."