Carlsberg South West Peninsula division one East

Teignmouth 1

Okehampton Argyle 2

ON a boiling hot day, the Okes made the journey to free scoring Teignmouth for the battle of two teams who had both only lost one game in the League this season.

The Argyle players battled hard throughout and ran themselves into the ground to come home with all three points from a Teignmouth side who started the day in fourth spot.

Argyle, missing the injured Adam Mortimer and Rob Clarke, gave another tremendous all round squad performance, although they did ride their luck at times. Both sides found it difficult to control the ball on the hard playing surface and Argyle passing was disappointing in the first half. The ball was too often played long and hard upfield where the two massive Teignmouth central defenders Alec Blackburn and Darren Brown won everything in the air. In midfield, Teignmouth played a hard tackling physical game that knocked Argyle out of their stride and usual playmaker Luke Alden, carrying an injury, found it difficult to get into the game.

Argyle's best moves came when they played the ball wide out of defence to Steve Madge on the right.

It was Okehampton who took the lead on seven minutes when home 'keeper Darren Shrubb failed to deal with a back pass and Steve Kinsey nipped in and beautifully curled the ball into the unguarded net from 20 yards.

The home side had the majority of first half possession from then on but the Argyle defence stood firm and made their hosts pay a minute before half-time when Teignmouth gave away a free kick just inside their own half. Matt Mortimer showed tremendous presence of mind to play the ball hard and low through a gap in the home defence and in nipped Kinsey to fire in off the post from ten yards.

The home side had chances in the second half to get back into the game with former Exeter City player Geoff Breslan beginning to spray passes around in midfield but Argyle's defence and midfield performed heroics to keep them out.

James Williams and Matt Mortimer were strong in the centre of defence and Alex Wren was a terrier in midfield. Meanwhile Will Hawking and Steve Kinsey continued to pose problems on the break and Kinsey came desperately close to completing his hat-trick midway through. With ten minutes left, Argyle brought on Dale Chadwick in midfield and Steve Williams up front and this almost had an immediate effect as Chadwick played a beautifully weighted pass for Steve Williams to surge onto and Williams' fierce shot beat the keeper but was inches the wrong side of the post.

Teignmouth got their just rewards in the 87th minute when a goalmouth scramble following a corner saw the loose ball poked in by Steve Mardell but Argyle held out for a great victory.

This was another battling hard working performance from Argyle and the win keeps them second position in the league.