Exwick Villa 3, Sidmouth 1 Sidmouth Under-15s were narrowly beaten when they travelled to Exeter to face reigning Exeter and District Youth League champions Exwick Villa, writes Paul Newberry.

In stark contrast to the previous matches stunning start they were slow out of the traps at the Exeter Arena and a combination of errors led to them falling behind after just three minutes.

Once the team settled got over the early blow they began to pass the ball well with Harvey Sargent and Tyler Wellman getting a grip of the midfield whilst the silky skills of Jack DeWinton gave the home side plenty to think about.

DeWinton was subjected to some very physical challenges and when he was upended yet again the Wellman free-kick was met by Jamie Newberry who saw his header go fractionally over the bar.

That early goal proved to be the only score of the first half.

After the break Joe Miller and Jonny Dunn were introduced from the bench and, when yet another foul was committed on the lively DeWinton the Wellman free-kick was powerfully headed home by Dunn to level things up.

Unfortunately, another sequence of mistakes led to Sidmouth soon falling behind once more

That proved a terminal blow to Sidmouth who had worked so hard to restore parity, something their contribution to the game deserved. Late on a penalty was tucked away by the home side to give them a rather flattering two-goal margin success.

Villa were a very physical side, but Sidmouth matched them for long periods.

However, the side’s Achilles heel in this game was the mistake making! The game’s stand-out individual contribution came from the impressive DeWinton.