Sidmouth Warriors Under-12s were in imperious form when they travelled to Exeter Arena to take on Whipton Youth, who they defeated 9-0 to move into their highest position of the season, a lofty third.

When Warriors met the Exeter side as an Under-11 team the two matches were mighty close contests. However, this season, the Warriors look to have gone from strength to strength and, from the first few minutes, it was clear that the home side were in for a tough morning!

Warriors, playing before another terrific turnout of travelling support, took an early lead when Finn Upsher pounced on a loose ball in the box and tapped it home.

Boosted by the early goal, Warriors continued on the front foot and, with skipper Callum French urging his team forward, it wasn’t long before the lead was doubled with the excellent Will Pulman slotting past the keeper to further galvanise his role as the team’s main front man!

Soon, a lovely passing move saw Ben Elsom in the right place at the right time to knock home his second and Thomas Fletcher made it 4-0, and all this inside the first 10 minutes of the game!

Whipton looked to try and find a way back into the contest, but when they did catch a glimpse of goal they found Warriors’ debutant glovesman Finn Cotton more than equal to their best efforts.

Just before the break, Upsher scored the team’s fifth to send Warriors in at half-time with a nap hand lead.

The hosts made a flying start to the second half, clearly determined to at least get a goal back. However, thank to an imperious midfield performance from Dev Nair, Whipton were unable to gain much of a foothold in the contest and just five minutes into the second half Upsher struck again to complete his hat-trick and make it 6-0. That was followed by a clinical finish from Ben Elsom to make it seven and late goals from Fletcher and Upsher rounded off a superb morning’s work for Warriors.