Sidmouth Town suffered opening day defeat in their South West Peninsula League Eastern Division season when beaten 3-1 at home by last season’s runners-up Teignmouth Town.

Town began well and had the visitors on the back foot in the early exchanges.

However, the South Devon side were awarded a 15th minute when Town’s Chris Clarke dangled a leg that tripped the on-rushing striker. Lance Clarke made no mistake from the spot placing passed the diving Steve Jones in the Sidmouth goal.

The Vikings response was good and they began a sustained period of keeping the ball and there was little doubt to the good crowd watching at Manstone Lane that they deserved to level on 25 minutes when debut making Nathan Antat unleashed a furious shot from 25-yards that flew passed former Sidmouth custodian Luke Ashford.

Teignmouth hit back and there was again an element of good fortune for them about the way they restored their lead when a speculative 25-yard effort from Clarke on the half hour found its way past Jones in the Vikings goal to give Teignmouth a 2-1 half-time advantage.

Sidmouth tweaked their formation at the break and this allowed the lively Antat more space to operate in.

The first of many second- The 1st of many talking points happened in the 55th minute. Antat jinxed his way into the opposition’s penalty area and for many it looked like the former Exmouth Town man was taken down from behind, however what seemed to be a stone wall penalty was waived away by the match official!

A second contentious decision arrived on 65 minutes when Shaun Densham sprung the offside trap and with just Ashford to beat squared the ball to the on rushing Tyler Dobinson who placed into the net.

However, the flag went up and Dobinson was controversially deemed to have been in an offside position!

Sidmouth, clearly not having the rub of the green, were facing an uphill battle, and were effectively finished off in the 80th minute when Ryan Bush finished placed the ball past Jones after a neat team move to complete the scoring.

Eight minutes from time Sidmouth’s bad luck was increased when Neil Pointing received his marching orders after a dubious off-the-ball tussle with a Teignmouth player!