Sidmouth Town made the whole valley proud when they lifted the Fresha Devon and Exeter League Premier title on Monday night, writes Lee Glanville.

They beat Willand Res 2-0 in front of a massive crowd to win the Premier league, 43 years after they last won it in 1968! Even the spectators, who packed the touchlines, were only children then!

Manager Paul Ashford said: “It is just brilliant. Absolute credit to the players for their commitment throughout the season, and especially during the disgraceful fixture backlog we had during the last 13 days. To be honest, we are just shattered now, but is it brilliant for the club.

“There are so many people who have put a lot into this, Phil Margrett and I have picked the teams and Jason Stiling has been an absolute rock but there are many, many more people involved who have made this happen.

“The club as a whole has been brilliant.It is local players, wanting to play for a local side and put on entertainment for local people. Don’t forget we all work and this has been a tough season. We tried to get the end of season fixtures moved around a bit - remember Seaton don’t have their final fixture until May 21 so I dont see whey we couldn’t have played until then.

“The players have been tremendous. We brought in a couple of local lads to boost us right at the end but it has been a real club effort. Veteran Mike Stamp has been inspirational - if he didn’t have a wife and children and a proper job he would be in the team every week! He could even teach Mary King a thing or two about getting off the ground, he really can jump high!

“We havent got a big celebration planned. We are just revelling in the feeling of achieving something that Sidmouth has been unable to do for so long. It has been a long season, and believe me there have been some bad times, The managers have taken a lot of criticism. i don’t take in personaly and i will stand my corner”

“I would also like to thank Seaton boss Josh Stunell who put such a positive angle on our double over Seaton. He presented us with a bottle of Champagne. He has a great team there and it’s a shame they won’t be coming up (to Peninsula) with us. We did celebrate with lots of champagne in the changing rooms afterwards.”

“That match against Willand was the sort of standard we want to be playing week in, week out.

The players were shattered on Wednesday when they played in the Morrison Bell Cup final against Feniton. The managers took a whole club approach to that competition and got the Reserves involved They only lost on penalties.

Sidmouth finish their season against Exeter University away on Friday night - 6.30pm kickoff at the Uni Topsham Road pitch - where they hope to be presented with the league cup. Look out for Paul Ashford - he threatens to be suited and booted just like Paul Tisdale when they actually get their hands on the silverware!