Sidmouth Town Reserves exited the East Devon Senior Cup at the quarter final stage for the second season running, this time going down 3-1 at Exmouth Town under the Southern Road floodlights.

Meeting their Division One counterparts away in midweek led to an unusual-looking Town team. The Vikings started brightly and had the better of the opening exchanges without causing too many problems for the home custodian

On 20 minutes the hosts went ahead, albeit against the run of play when they netted from close range following a goal mouth scramble.

With a stiff breeze in their faces the Vikings held firm going into the interval just the one goal behind.

Straight from the restart the home back line could not deal with a long ball and Will Jenkins seized his chance to gather the ball some 25-yards out and rifle the ball home to level things up.

The following 10 minutes saw the Vikings pressure the home goal, but the final pass wasn’t quite good enough to create an opportunity

Midway through the half a soft free-kick was awarded and the resultant cross wasn’t cleared efficiently leaving a simple chance to nudge the hosts in front. Five minutes later it was 3-1 after Anthony Griffiths was bundled over off the ball to leave the striker with a free run at goal.

Town joint manager Paddy Thomas said: “With a sprinkling of senior players it was going to be a tough night for the young players.

“Hopefully they will have learned a lot from this game and will be better players for it.”