Devon & Exeter Premier
Hatherleigh Town 1
Exeter Civil Service 2
HATHERLEIGH went into this game with an unchanged team following the previous week?s good performance.
The first half saw Hatherleigh struggle to get their usual passing game going. With the Civil players being quick to close down space the home team?s passing became sloppy.
This resulted in Civil seeing a lot of possession although they did not create too many goal-scoring chances.
Hatherleigh almost took the lead when Simon James raced clear of the Civil defence and closed in on goal. He struck his shot well but the Civil keeper made a good stop and the rebound spun away from the incoming home attackers.
Civil scored the first goal on the half-hour. A cross from the right came in and Dymond attempted to clear.
The ball looped up in the air and dropped to a Civil forward who dispatched an unstoppable volley into the corner of the net.
Hatherleigh were forced into changes at half-time with the injured Adams being replaced by Cleave. He slotted into the back four with Endacott pushing up into midfield.
Hatherleigh produced a better performance in the second half but just could not put the finishing touch onto their attacks.
Dymond, James, Vernon, Cleave and Harris were all guilty of missing chances of varying degrees of difficulty.
Civil increased their lead with 20 minutes to go, following a
corner. The flag kick was not dealt with properly and the ball was fired back into the goal.
As a last throw of the dice Dan Timms was brought on and Hatherleigh switched to a 4-3-3 formation.
The home side pulled a goal back when Pearson won possession on the halfway line. He played in Harris down the right and his intended cross ended up deceiving the keeper and dropping into the goal.
Hatherleigh were denied a blatant penalty near the end when Timms played in James who had his legs kicked from under him before he could get his shot in, but the referee waved play on.
This Saturday sees another home match against struggling Elmore.