Carlsberg South West Peninsula division one East
Okehampton Argyle 1
Alphington 3
WHAT a disappointing performance this was from Argyle last Wednesday after their good run of late.
Admittedly they were missing key central defenders Matt Mortimer and Dan Johnston and they were up against a team lying fifth in the league, but this was a tired performance with the players looking disinterested and unable to string two decent passes together.
To be fair to the players, this was their fifth game in 12 days so it was perhaps not surprising that tiredness took its toll.
Argyle were their own worst enemies early on, often trying to carry the ball across their own goal area and were made to pay for this after 20 minutes when the usually reliable Frankie Nomah-Koneh was dispossessed on the edge of his own box and Tim Cridland slotted home to give Alphington the lead.
Argyle tried to force their way back into the game but too often the final pass went astray. However a minute before half-time, a rare good pass from Steve Kinsey found Steve Williams in the Alphington box and the forward turned his man and fired home a firm shot to level the match.
In the second half Alphington who came out and played the better football.
Argyle's passing was poor and even the introduction of Tiverton Town player Colin Marshall and the returning Kel Fofala as substitutes could not change the game.
Argyle were further hampered when defender Chris Wills had to leave the field with a hamstring injury and the rearranged back line never looked comfortable.
On 57 minutes, poor marking in the Argyle box allowed Alphington's Tom Baxter to turn and place his shot into the corner of Harry Geering's net, giving the keeper no chance, and ten minutes before the end the same player was again left unmarked to fire home past the unsighted Geering from the edge of the area.
Geering was Argyle's player on the night as he kept the home team's hopes alive in the first half with some fine saves and made further good stops late-on to prevent Alphington increasing their lead.