Sidmouth Raiders Under-16s began a new season of Exeter and District League action with a 4-2 home defeat to Tedburn Panthers.

The home side began brightly and Scott Hughes gave them an early lead.

However, rather than go on and press home their clear early advantage, they seemed to sit back and this gave the visitors the confidence to grow into the contest and they began to dominate.

It needed some disciplined defending and good goalkeeping from Kieran Hopley to deny them an equaliser before half-time.

Raiders began the second half well, but were legged back as Panthers scored with a counter-attack. The visitors took the lead when the home defence stopped to see if the match official was going to blow his whistle for what they considered a foul on a Raiders defender.

A third for Tedburn seemed to take the game away from Raiders, but a Jordan Parsons goal gave them hope. Late on, with Raiders pressing, Tedburn broke and netted a late fourth.