Sidmouth Town Reserves booked a last 16 berth in the Devon Senior Cup thanks to a 4-2 Manstone Lane victory over Newton Poppleford.

The Vikings were made to work hard for their victory by a spirited visiting side.

Starting on the front foot, Town created early chances, but all too often the final pass was poor or a wrong decision was made when the opportunity arose.

The visitors then broke away quickly through a gaping hole that suddenly appeared in the Town midfield which was exploited by former Viking’s player Matt Rasmussen, who took the ball on before drilling it past home goalkeeper Gluckhowski.

Town were clearly stunned by the goal and, for the next 10 minutes appeared clueless to the task at hand!

There was a measure of good fortune that helped Town level as a Ferenc Bodor cross struck an unfortunate Popples defender before flying past his glovesman! Once level, confidence began to grow iin the Town ranks and, when they did accept that a ‘simple’ approach would pay dividends, they sliced the opposition defence open with relative ease.

Howeverf, the contest was certainly not all one-way and another former Viking, Alex Bowring, was starring for the plucky visitors as they never let Town settle into any constant rhythm

Ben Miller drove in a second midway in the first half to edge Town in front and this stayed the same through to the interval.

Tactical changes were made at half-time as Will Jenkins entered the fray and it wasn’t long before he was whipping in a great cross from the right hand side that eluded Aidy Parr by inches. A third goal came when again a goalmouth scramble saw another own goal conceded. Like an annoying fly that won’t go away, the Popples replied through Rasmussen to keep the Vikings on their toes

Parr finally got his name on the score sheet adding the fourth to seal an unconvincing victory for the home side.

Town joint boss Paddy Thomas said: “This cup tie was a classic ‘banana skin’ game for the team. They [Newton Poppleford] came with nothing to lose for current form indicated this ought to have been a big home win. What the Popples showed is that they can play, and if they repeat this sort of performance on a consistent basis they will quickly climb their division.

“As for us, it does remain a mystery as to how, such a talented group of individuals can’t gel as a team, but we will keep working to improve.

“Another victory is always welcome and hopefully a good team performance is on the cards shortly.”

This coming Saturday (November 11) Town Reserves travel to Exeter to meet Heavitree United (2pm) in a Macron League Division One game.