AC Heavitree 3, Sidmouth Warriors 2 Sidmouth Warriors Under-14s were left feeling hard done by when edged out in a close encounter in Exeter in their latest Exeter and District Youth League outing.

‘Unlucky to not get at least a draw’ was the AC Heavitree manager’s assessment of the Warriors performance after a terrific match played in a fantastic spirit.

The Warriors, without an outing for just over three soggy months, served up arguably their best performance of the whole campaign.

The Warriors adopted a whole new style of play and it seemed to excite the team and give them a chance to play a lot more attacking football.

Against the wind in the first half the midfield trio of Perez, Jones and Wilkes had to work really hard to break down Heavitree’s attacks and feed the ball to the pacey trio up front of Gosse, Mead and Harris.

Gosse went close twice before Heavitree took the lead with a well worked goal. Perez then pulled off two outstanding saves to thwart the hosts and, coupled with some fantastic defending from captain Littley, Woodruff, Hayman and De Gruchy, the Exeter side were denied further goals until two inside a minute left warriors three down at the break.

The players looked disappointed at the interval, but a confidence-boosting half-time discussion saw them dominate proceedings from the re-start.

With the wind behind them and with Wilkes orchestrating things from midfield, Warriors began an impressive fight back.

Gosse, Mead and Wilkes all went close before a cross from Mead was volleyed home by Harris. Mead’s volley was saved superbly by the home gloves man before, after a mazy run and a pinpoint cross, Gosse narrowly missed the target with a header.

With two minutes remaining a corner by Harris was slotted home by Chapman-Coombe with the outside of his foot. That set up a frenetic last few minutes, but time ran out on a most spirited Warriors performance.

Team; Ollie Perez, Toby De Gruchy, Tom Woodruff, Kade Hayman, Ricky Littley, Matt Jones, Eliot Perez, Callum Wilkes, George Harris, Ethan Mead, Ben Gosse, Cameron Phillips and Louis Chapman-Coombe.