Sidmouth Town Reserves slump to heavy Pinhoe defeat

The game had started so well for Town who spent much of the first third of the contest camped in the hosts half. They pressed in all the right areas, but the home side always carried a threat on the break. The deadlock was broken when a Pinhoe player struck ma speculative effort that curled into the top scorner after which Town’s performance went rapidly down hill!

Pinhoe looked like they could, and would, score at will. Time and again they tore the Town defence to shreds and added two further goals whilst also missing a hatful of other chances!

Town did produce the odd attack and got a goal from Matt Rassmussen to make it 3-1 at the break. The second half was quite even until the hosts scored their fourth and games fifth and final goal.

Town boss Nick Ogden said: “It was certainly one of those ‘backs to the wall shows’ and only the home team will know just why they did not run up a cricket score of goals! We are down to the bare bones and are having to use people we wouldn’t normally use, so, in that respect I am just pleased to be able to put a side out. However, having witnessed two performances full of guts and spirit from our first team the least I expected was for us to compete, unfortunately we had one of those days when too many players were found wanting. They know they are far better than this and must start taking responsibility for their efforts and look at themselves long and hard. I’m confident they will do that and react in the right way. One plus was the performance of Doug Still who is showing real maturity for a 16-year-old at this level and he fully deserved yet another Man of the Match award”.

The Town Reserves are next in action on Easter Monday with a trip to Bickleigh and then quickly back in action on Wednesday night (April 3) when they host Colaton Raleigh. They play a fourth game in just eight days with Saturday’s swift return with Pinhoe.