Devon and Exeter three

Sandford 1

AFTER a punishing 11 days of five away games on the trot Zeal produced the best home performance of the season to defeat Sandford at the Recreation Ground on Saturday.

The home side were the better side from the start and after several chances went narrowly wide Scott Hooper opened the scoring when he converted a Redd Cann cross with a good header at the far post.

Harley Cann made it 2-0 when Darren Prouse and Robbie Sendercock combined to put him through on the left and he finished well from close range.

In the second half the vistors started to get back into the game but the Zeal defence marshalled by a superb Lee Gilbert restricted the visitors to efforts from outside the penalty area and those on target were well delt with with Reg Wonnacott in the United goal.

Tom Reilly and Dan Wakeham combined to put Harley Cann through for his second to put Zeal 3-0 up and he completed his hat-trick 10 minutes later when he rounded the keeper and finished well from close range. Sandford reduced the deficite to 4-1 with a great strike from just inside the penalty area.

However, Zeal completed a good performance when Harley set up Scott Hooper for his second 10 minutes from time for an emphatic win. Zeal's previous five games produced a 1-1 draw away to Chard with a Redd Cann goal for Zeal; a 4-0 defeat to Offwell; a 1-0 defeat at Dawlish Town where Zeal played very well and deserved a point; a 3-1 loss at Lympstone where with 20 minutes to go a tremendous strike from Redd Cann had put Zeal level but down to nine men they ran out of steam and a 3-1 defeat at Dawlish Utd Scott Hooper scoring Zeal's goal.

This was South Zeal United's last game of the season and the club thank all the players, helpers and supporters for their efforts during the season.