Sidmouth Town joint manager Kev Tooze was delighted with the side’s performance against Honiton Town, writes Steve Birley.

Tooze, who took charge of the team prior to Saturday’s League Cup home win over Axminster Town, said: “The lads were buzzing after the game for, although the score line suggest a close encounter, hand on heart, if we had won by a five or six-goal margin then I am pretty confident there would not have been any complaints from the opposition.”

Tooze continued: “We have to give absolutely all the credit here to the players. When Richard left – and let’s put it on record that Richard did a fantastic job here, but he has gone now – the first thing Danny and I decided to do was to change the system, which was previously very much ‘long-ball, get it forward quickly’, and we much prefer the ‘playing out from the back’ and keeping the ball on the turf.

“For the first 15 minutes on Saturday against Axminster Town it was clear that the lads were struggling to adapt, and that’s not a surprise. It’s very tough – some would say mad – for a style to be changed ‘just like that’, but these lads we have at Town are good players – and also clever ones – and once they had settled into the style they played it so well.

“The key for Danny and I is the players adapting to the concept of a passing game and, just as importantly, doing so with a smile on their faces, enjoying what they are doing and that was what came shining through on Wednesday night under the Manstone Lane floodlights.”

Tooze added: “As the old saying goes, ‘the proof is in the eating’ and the lads were clearly not comfortable with the old style and are very happy with the new system.”

On Saturday Town head for a game with a Stoke Gabriel side who are unbeaten at home so far this season, but Tooze says: “We have a full squad available and are going to Stoke to win a game of football. Whether we do or don’t is down to us. Perform as we can and, with a wee bit of luck, we’ll bring something and I tell you what, we’ll be playing again with a smile on our face and working very hard to achieve the result we want to bring back from our visit to South Devon.”