Sidmouth Town Reserves were 4-0 winners when they entertained Chard Town Reserves in a Macron League Division One game.

The Vikings second string fully deserved the clean sheet success, achieved after they outplayed their Somerset counterparts, who still lie above them in the table.

On what was a windy Saturday afternoon at Manstone Lane, Sidmouth were quickly on to the front foot and a good home following was left in almost abject shock when, in the third minute, Tom Moore was clearly fouled in the penalty area, but no action was taken!

Undeterred, the young Vikings kept the pressure on and were rewarded when skipper Jack Hatswell swept the ball home at the far post. The lead was doubled on 25 minutes when Reuben Raffell struck a superb volley that swerved away from the visiting keeper to make it 2-0. The visitors resorted to some very physical challenges, one of them involving what looked like an elbow into the face of Louis Spalding, who was adjudged to have dived by the match official!

To their credit, the young Town players refused to be drawn into such actions and they continued to let their football do the talking!

The second half saw a fine disciplined performance with Matt Colson and Ben Miller dominant at the back.

Ferenc Bodor struck a third with a toe punt from outside the box and Scott Hughes added another to cap a fine display from the Vikings. One impressive feature of the Town side in this contest was that 11 of the 14-player squad were under the age of 19. All are clearly starting to gain confidence and with improved availability then it’s hoped that standards will continue to improve.

From a youthful squad, the game management was fantastic and they all played their part in a great performance. This Saturday (October 13) the Vikings begin their defence of the Devon Senior Cup when Stoke Gabriel Reserves are the visitors for a 2pm kick-off at Manstone Lane.