East Budleigh 3, Tipton St John 1 The opening game of a new season proved very frustrating for a Tipton side badly depleted by illness and holidays, writes Richard Williams.

Tipton found themselves a goal down within nine minutes of the kick-off with the home side netting with a close-range shot following an East Budleigh free kick.

The early setback failed to knock Tipton out of their stride and they played some decent football, deservedly equalizing on the half hour mark with a finely struck volley from Nick Feeney from 20-yards out, low to the keepers right.

East Budleigh then retook the lead nine minutes later following a breakaway and shot which was initially blocked by a Tipton defender before rebounding to an East Budleigh player for an easy close range tap in.

Tipton again rallied and a fine passage of play on the stroke of halftime culminated with a shot from Ash Baker which went wide.

Both Teams came out and matched each other for the first twenty minutes of the second half before Tipton had a free kick deep in their own half which was poorly taken and knocked straight to an opposition player who made the most of it by cutting in from his left before smashing a shot into the roof of the net.

To their credit, Tipton didn’t lose heart and both Ash Baker and Jody Freeman had shots saved on 73 and 80 minutes following some fine play by their teammates.

Kev Sexton had the final chance of note for Tipton on 84 minutes when he saw his long range effort go inches wide of the post.

Man of the Match for Tipton was Hadyn Banfield who had a fine game in midfield.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Tipton entertain Alphington.