Sidmouth Raiders Under-15s were edged out 1-0 when they made the short trip to Exmouth to take on Brixington Blues.

Raiders gave a good account of themselves in an enthralling contest that saw them up against a well-disciplined, well-drilled and powerful home side.

In a closely contested first half, Sidmouth’s defence worked hard to keep the home strikers at arm’s length.

A feature of the Blues attack was their ability to deliver long throws, but the Sidmouth back line was equal to the task and defended such situations well.

At the other end of the pitch, in-form striker Yan Mercan was being given particularly close-attention and was, indeed, well-marshalled by the Blues defence.

The first half ended with a goal at either end, though Raiders did have the best of the first-half chances with Frank Long proving how dangerous a threat he can be with some spectacular long-range efforts.

Miles Lewis also was unlucky with a closer range effort that went agonisingly wide of the upright.

After the break, the deadlock was broken, but only after the referee over-ruled a linesman’s flag to award what proved to be the only goal of the contest.

After falling behind, Raiders did fashion a number of opportunities to net themselves and they spurned one glorious chance when a superbly weighted cross from Miles Lewis fell invitingly to Joel Evans, who was just off target with his header.

Despite the defeat there were some noteworthy performances from the Raiders. None more so than from Owen Baldwin, who demonstrated his versatility for the team by keeping a first half clean sheet and then playing the second half as the right winger!

However, the Raiders Man of the Match award went to Zac Lascelles for his determined and tenacious performance at centre-back.