Sidmouth Town boss Joshua Stunell is very confident that the Manstone Lane side has an exciting future ahead with the emergence of so many young players at the club.

Already 16-year-old central defender Jamie Newbery has become a first team regular and the likes of Joe Miller and Jack Dewinton, to name but two, look set to have great futures in the game.

Stunell says: “Having seen just what is coming through the youth ranks at the club I feel very confident about the future of the club. It’s clear to me that, given a good pre-season for the latest batch of lads reaching their 16th birthday’s and combining that with the experience the younger players are getting each week in the Peninsula League side, I think we can have an exciting time over the coming seasons”

For now the Town boss has his eyes on tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day meeting with Alphington at Manstone Lane.

Given the two teams’ season’s goal counts the match is going to be full of goals! Town have played 14 home matches in the league so far, scoring 37 and conceding 35 which averages out at five goals a game! Factor in Alphingtons’ record to date of 55 goals in their 12 away games and there’s a recipe for goals galore at Manstone Lane this Valentine’s Day!

Stunell says of the Alphas game: “We’ll send the players out to, hopefully, serve up a solid first 20 minutes. Far too many times this season we have gone onto the pitch with great intent, but then shipped early goals and given ourselves a mountain to climb. Last Saturday was different in as much as we did not concede early on but, having got our noses in front, we should have put the game to bed long before the 30th minute equaliser they (Okehampton) scored against us.”

He continued: “We’ll look to play in 20-minute bursts. Tight for the first 20 minutes will be the order of the day and then we’ll have a go at them. We know what our strengths are we’ll play to them. Solid defending is the key.”

Kick-off at Manstone Lane is 3pm.