Ottery St Mary Under-13s continued their impressive run of success as they took apart table-topping Moors Youth, beating the Tiverton-based side 5-0 before another excellent Washbrook Meadows turnout.
An eighth successive win now sees Addy Carpenter’s side up to second in the league, and they have a game in hand.
The Otters made a flying start and, with Freddie Clarke linking up well with Finn Upsher, the visiting side were soon forced onto the back foot. Clarke’s work rate and positional play was outstanding as he continually put the Moors defence under pressure.
The early pressure paid dividends when, in the ninth minute, leading scorer Finn Upsher turned home a Tom Bennett corner. Two minutes later, a weaving run by Upsher ended with the young striker being unceremoniously upended in the area and Sam Gleeson made no mistake from the penalty spot, netting his sixth goal of the season in the process.
On 24 minutes, Moors swept forward and won a corner. The resulting kick fell to their striker, whose goal-bound shot was excellently tipped around the post by Ottery keeper Jack Hembrow, who has been in outstanding form in recent weeks.
Jack Carpenter and Jake Blackmore, with some tenacious tackling and creative industry, orchestrated things from the middle third of the pitch, and, on 26 minutes, Carpenter was a whisker away from adding a third. Ollie Milton also went close before the visiting glovesman had his hands stung by an Upsher effort and, when the ball ran free, Clarke pounced to drill it home. A minute later Upsher latched onto a Milton through-ball and rifled it home to send Ottery into the break with a 4-0 lead.
After the break, a clearly shell-shocked visiting side looked to try to get back into the contest, but they got no change out of the Ottery back line, which was superbly marshalled by skipper Finn Lashbrook.
Man of the Match Rowan Hewitt held firm and Tom Bennett and Sam Gleeson were both solid in defence and responsible for launching many of Ottery’s attacking moves. Fin Giles, who was introduced for the second half, showed some excellent link-play with striker Upsher, while Dan Wright was a constant thorn to the Tiverton side’s back line.
It was no surprise when Upsher completed his latest hat-trick, a goal that gave him 18 for the season so far and, in the closing stages, George Durham was a whisker away from making it six when his crisp volley cannoned back off the crossbar!
Ottery assistant manager Mark Gleeson praised the team, saying: “There is confidence in the squad but the boys also recognise that hard work, discipline and effort is required to win against other teams in the league.”
Manager Addy Carpenter added: “The first-half display was outstanding and, without doubt, the best I’ve seen an Ottery side play.”
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