Devon & Exeter Premier
Newton St Cyres 2
Okehampton Argyle 3
ARGYLE met the bottom club on a wet and heavy pitch — pretty football was not on the agenda.
But most of the small crowd watching were in for a surprise as Argyle took the initiative from the start and played at a high tempo. Paul Yip, playing up front with Danny Maddax, caused problems with his pace, as did Neil Agnew and Mike Vernon wide on the flanks.
Nick Drew, Danny Gibbs and Ian King were the workers in the middle of the park giving excellent cover to Argyle's defence.
Argyle took a deserved lead when King's long-range pass went to Maddax - his first-time cross was met by a diving header from Neil Agnew.
Agnew set Argyle off again when he linked well with Yip who found Vernon wide on the right. His low drive was only parried by the keeper to the onrunning King who could not miss from two yards.
After the interval Argyle struggled to find their rhythm and slowly Newton came into the game. Argyle's solid defence of Graham Soby, Kevin Gill and Dave Grimes, who made his first team start for several years, did not seem as solid, partly due to Newton pushing more and the Argyle players getting tired. Argyle keeper Richard Bailey could only stand and watch for much of the time.
The inevitable happened when Argyle let in two silly goals, both headers from close range. With only a few minutes left a draw seemed likely. Argyle pushed players forward trying to score a winner. Maddax saw a shot smash against the bar and Vernon had a header hit both posts and rebound out.
The winning goal came in injury time when a shot from Maddax was going wide; it struck Vernon and deflected into the goal — this summed up Argyle's performance.
This continues an impressive run of recent results, in which Argyle have lost only one game in their last eight outings.
This week Argyle are away again against Pinhoe, players to meet in the car park at 1pm.