Danny Burnwood has praised his young side after they returned to winning ways against Axminster Town on Wednesday night with a 2-1 victory.

Burnwood was pleased with the way his side bounced back from a 7-3 defeat against Torpoint Atheltic on Saturday, he said: "We knew we had to make changes and we really had to go for it. We had to clean up the mistakes we made on Saturday and we did that. The lads were fantastic."

Speaking on the Torpoint defeat, Burwood said: "It was our first game at step six, we weren't to know what to expect. We went out with a game plan and for 60 minutes that worked but then we conceded four sloppy goals against a good Torpoint side."

The Sidmouth manager was pleased with the young players in his squad and how they adapted to what was asked for them. He said: "To be fair, we've had some things thrown at us.

"We've lost a few players and a little bit of the experience has gone from the side but I've put trust in the young lads and they've come through with flying colours."

"I said to them they're going to have to bed in and it's going to be a bit of time, be patient. Even last night, we had Ben Clay at centre half who is probably the last experienced player we had in the side and he pulled up in the warm-up. We tucked in our new signing Tom Diamond and he had an outstanding game. He got man of the match on his debut.

"As well as young Brandon Milford who stepped in last night, he's only 19, and made two great saves to keep us in the game."

The game ebbed and flowed with both teams having periods on top but Sidmouth made the most of their chances while restricting Axminster. Burnwood said: "What disappointed me the most was the amount of crosses they got into the box and from those crosses they had two good chances but we haven't let it get us down. We've ground it out and ground it out.

"There was always going to be a period in the match when they were going to be on the up and that was 10 minutes into the second half spell, they had a 20 minute spell after they scored and within those 20 minutes they created those chances.

"We bided our time and I'd say for the latter part of the game, we were able to see it out quite comfortably as well as create chances ourselves."

Looking ahead to the weekend, Sidmouth have a tough schedule with a game away at Torrington on Saturday before a visit to Crediton United on Monday.

On the run, Burnwood said: "It's going to be tough because when you look at it we went away to Torpoint last Saturday, we had a derby midweek then we go to Torrington away then the Monday is Crediton away and then we've got Brixham away the following Saturday.

"It's a very tough start with a minimal squad that we've got at the moment but we are looking to sign a few players and fingers crossed that'll come through and then we will have a little bit of breathing space.

"We're having to take it game by game but they're Sidmouth lads and they want to play for the club. That's the best thing about the club, we've got four teams there and everybody wants to be part of the first team."