Silverton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

South Zeal Utd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

SOUTH Zeal's first game in the senior 4 division of the Devon and Exeter league was never going to be easy against a Silverton side that knew how to play on a pitch with a very pronounced slope.

Zeal kicked with the slope in the first half which they dominated, but could not create any clear cut chances early on as the final pass all too often ran through to the Silverton keeper. Silverton took the lead after 10 minutes when during a rare attack one of their strikers broke on the right and beat Neil Clift in the Zeal goal with a tremendous shot from the edge of the penalty area. Several minutes later the same player broke again and this time Neil made a tremendous save to keep Zeal from going two behind.

After 20 minutes Zeal drew level when Mark Hampson broke down the left and hit a great cross in for Garry Smith to equalise with a good header from 10 yards. Zeal had several more good chances to take the lead but could not put the ball into the net, however just before the end of the first half Garry Smith and Roger White combined well and the latter finished well from close range to put Zeal 2-1 up.

Apart from the first 10 minutes when Silverton hit ball after ball into the heart of the Zeal defence, Zeal were never in any trouble, going three one up after 15 minutes of the second half when some good work by Arun Ditchburn and Harley Cann set up Steve Pillivant who made no mistake from 12 yards.

This week: home to Northlew. Ko 3pm.