South West Peninsula division one East

Okehampton Argyle 0

Totnes and Dartington 4

THIS was a match that Okehampton had hoped to win, but although they matched their visitors in midfield and played some lovely football in this area, the result proved that you cannot play at this level without a recognised goalkeeper or a forward with some penetrative ability.

Argyle were missing key players Chris Wills, Mark Burdus, Steve Williams and Ed Squire and in the absence of a new goalkeeper signing, manager Stuart Cann filled this vital position.

In front of this season's lowest crowd of only 23, Okehampton matched the visitors in midfield for most of the first half, but trailed 2-0 at the break after Ben Bowhay had shot home from a tight angle on the left on 15 minutes and Dave Heath had found the net from 30 yards three minutes later with a week shot that deceived the Argyle keeper. An experienced goalkeeper would probably have saved both of these efforts but to be fair to Cann, the Okehampton defence had opened up and left players unmarked on both occasions.

At the other end, Argyle showed some good approach work, but never looked dangerous in front of goal.

Okehampton had by far the better of the second half and worked some attractive moves across the midfield where Chris Hollands, George Pitts, Stuart Entwhistle, Matt Sanders and Jonjo Fellows combined well and constantly threatened to pull Argyle back into the game.

Unfortunately, the home side showed a tendency to try to walk the ball into the Totnes net rather than shoot, and they paid the penalty ten minutes from time, when a long ball out of the Totnes defence squeezed between two Okehampton defenders and Ryan Hare fired past Cann in a one on one situation to extend the Totnes lead.

In the last minute, Hare again fastened onto a through ball to fire home from close range and complete the scoring.

Argyle are now in real danger of relegation from the Peninsula League and need to step up a couple of gears to avoid this. They play a good quality of football but are desperately lacking a forward who can find the net and an experienced goalkeeper.

l On Saturday the Argyle reserves are away to the University of Plymouth, kick-off 2pm, in the Devon Senior Cup fourth round.