Devon & Exeter Premier

Budleigh Salterton 3

Okehampton 2

ARGYLE travelled to the league leaders without six regular players — and almost pulled off a remarkable win.

Ian Gill, hamstring, and Adam Mortimer, bad back, were both out, so Jason Sandford started his first game for the first team and capped a fine performance by scoring.

Nic Pollard scored the first after only five minutes, striking the ball home sweetly with his right knee after a rasping drive from Graham Soby rebounded off the keeper. Neil Agnew almost added a second after a fine solo run only to see his shot narrowly miss the target.

Danny Maddax had a good game on the left flank as did Daniel Johnston on his return to the first team, on the right flank.

Budleigh were kept pinned inside their own half for long periods with Okehampton having the lion's share of possesion. On the rare occasion Budleigh went forward they were caught offside with Argyle pushing forward from defence. Just before the interval a rare miss-kick by Kevin Gill allowed Budleigh to equalise. Moments later they took the lead against the run of play.

This knocked Argyle back and after the restart they conceded another sloppy goal. Again, Argyle tried to get into the game but poor distribution let them down. They pushed forward looking to catch Budleigh offside. Good timing of their runs meant keeper Richard Bailey was kept on his toes but Budleigh could not find a way past him, with Maddax, Lloyd Chapman and Graham Soby also making saving tackles.

At the other end Daniel Johnston made some dangerous runs down the right with Mike Vernon and Chapman giving him options on the overlap. Nic Pollard tried to chip the keeper as did Jason Sandford and on both occasions the keeper just managed to get his fingers to the ball.

Lloyd Chapman had two one on ones with the keeper but both attemps were saved well. Maddax and Sandford both almost connected with Johnston's right crosses.

The last 20 minutes Argyle tried everything to score with Ian King dictating play in midfield, assisted by the non stop running of Agnew. Sandford and Johnston deserve special praise for their performance along with Agnew and Bailey.

This week Argyle are away to Witheridge, kick-off 2.30pm —leaving car park at 12.45pm.