Carlsberg South West Peninsula division

one east

Okehampton Argyle 1

Exeter Civil Service 4

ARGYLE'S difficult start to the season continued at Simmons Park last Saturday against last season's division one east champions.

Okehampton's current squad is one of the best the club has assembled in recent years, but again Argyle proved that a collection of good individuals does not necessarily make a good team and the match was thrown away in a 20-minute spell in the second half.

The club now sits second to bottom with no points from four matches, but the feeling is that if the players can begin to gel as a team, then Argyle can match anyone in the division. Indeed, there were signs of that on Saturday and for a long spell, Argyle looked the more likely winner of this encounter.

Both sides put some good moves together early on, but it was the visitor's who took the lead on eleven minutes when Okehampton captain Graham Soby was adjudged to have brought down Civil's Carl Lavis in the box. Matt Byrne made no mistake with the penalty.

Argyle fought back strongly and equalised on 25 minutes when a good move across the Civil box saw midfielder Ed Squire drive home from 20 yards.

For the remainder of the first half, Okehampton had the upper hand and should have taken the lead when Steve Williams outpaced the visitor's defence, only to see his shot blocked by Civil keeper Adrian Pullin.

For the first ten minutes of the second half, Okehampton bossed the game but did not put away their chances. In what seems to be becoming the norm this season, Civil then burst out of defence and took the lead when Darren Pattison saw a gap and fired home a fierce shot from fully 30 yards. Argyle tried to fight back but heads began to drop and after 70 minutes the game was sealed in Civil's favour when Andy Brooks started and finished a fine five-man move that completely split the Okehampton defence, again on the fast break.

Two minutes later, the visitors extended their lead when Jamie Densham burst through to score. Okehampton then put in a fine last few minutes to try to get something out of the game but once again missed chances prevented them from denting the visitor's lead.