Sidmouth Town slipped to a 3-1 defeat when they travelled to South Devon to meet Galmpton United in a Peninsula League, Eastern Division meeting.

Sometimes a final score does not truly reflect the 90 minutes of action and this was certainly one such case! The home side had in goal former Hereford United glovesman Kenny Griffiths and his class shone throughout as he made a number of outstanding saves to deny the Vikings goals – and at key moments in the contest!

In a high tempo start to the contest, the opening goal was scored in the 10th minute by teenager Curtis Clarke who marked his debut for Galmpton with a fine finish after ghosting his way round Sidmouth right back Ben Farrington.

That proved to be the only goal of a closely contested first half with both defences enjoying control. The Sidmouth central defensive pairing of Jamie Newbery and Anthony Griffiths expertly marshalled Galmpton experienced strike duo of Dan Rankin and Matt Barkwell.

Sidmouth should have equalised within a minute of the restart when Cameron Vere failed to connect Ryan Davies defence-splitting through-ball, with only Griffiths to beat, Vere at full stretch somehow failed to make any contact to the ball, much to the relief of the home dugout!

In the 60th minute, former Wales Under-19 keeper Griffiths dived full length to tip a Jamie Orchard effort goal-bound around the post. It was a save of the highest quality and, minutes later, the former professional was at it again! Cameron Vere deflected a shot and the trajectory of the ball had ‘goal’ written all over it only for the experienced custodian to somehow recover from a prone position to dive backwards and hold the ball on the line. Moments later Orchard had thought he had scored, but saw his shot cleared off the line by a recovering defender.

It was then against the run of play that Galmpton scored their second; great work by Clarke enabled Mark Newbold to slot past Sidmouth’s Jamie Harvey.

In the 75th minute yet another Vikings goal-bound shot was desperately hacked clear of the line and, just seconds later, and four crisp passes, Clarke stroked the ball home for his second to end any Sidmouth hopes.

Three goals down, Town introduced Olly Binion into midfield that on the day lacked some much needed energy due to missing duo Tyler Wellman and Connor Swingler missing the game, the relentless Binion started to cause problems and Sidmouth eventually beat Griffiths, Vere riffling home his 17th goal of the season.

It was the very least Town deserved for their sterling efforts and, had it not been for the Griffiths excellence, the final score would surely have had a very different look about it.

Sidmouth From: Harvey, Farrington, Griffiths, Newbery, White, Allen, Baker, Davies (C), Cox, Vere, Orchard. Used subs: Green, Burrows and Binion.

Star Man Anthony Griffiths.