Sidmouth Town went down to a 2-0 floodlit defeat at Newton Abbot Spurs on Wednesday night.

The game was brought forward from this coming Saturday to allow the players – there’s no Sidmouth senior football this weekend – to attend the funeral of their former team mate Sam Marriott.

At Newton Abbot, the Vikings welcomed Cameron Vere from a spell at Exmouth Town and he took his place in a new look front line alongside Ashley Small who has returned home after a lengthy spell of travelling.

The movement and linking between the pair gave rise to the view that Town could certainly do with a full season of the duo leading the line as they ran the home defence a merry dance for much of the first half.

The home side took the points thanks to two second half goals from the prolific scorer that is Adam Dyson.

Town boss Josh Stunell said: “No complaints from me. It was a game very similar to last Saturday’s – the Vikings were beaten 2-0 at Manstone Lane by University – in a as much as, after the game, I told the players that I could not praise them highly enough for they had given their all and, as a manager, I couldn’t ask for any more.”

The Vikings boss continued: “For the opening hour we were as good as we have been all season, and it was only the predatory instinct of Adam [Dyson] that broke the deadlock and then, as often happens in such cases, we went in search of an equaliser and were caught on the break for their second, and points clinching,goal.”

Town have four games left this season and does that mean Stunell is looking to the future yet? He says: “No, I did agree around six weeks ago with the committee that I’d like to continue my work here and they gave me the green light.

“This is very much ‘work in progress’ at Manstone Lane. We are seeing year on year improvement and there remain a dozen points to be played for this season. Our pre-season target was to look to bank 50 points and we are 10 shy with four left so three wins and a draw with get us there. That said, I do believe, if we perform as we did against both University and Newton Abbot Spurs across the last four outings then we are certainly good enough to win all four of the games.”