Devon & Exeter
Intermediate 1
South Zeal Utd 4
Motel Rangers
and Offwell 2
AFTER losing 3-2 at home the previous week to Dunkerswell, South Zeal seemed transformed as they demolished high-flying Motel.
For the first 15 minutes you would not have bet on a Zeal victory as Motel attacked continuously and went one up after five minutes when a great strike by one of their forwards flew into the net past Dave Wooldridge the Zeal keeper.
The Zeal defence, well marshalled by Reg Wonnacott, started to get to grips with the Motel attack and an equaliser came after 20 minutes when Tim Sanderson broke out of defence and laid a great ball to Steve Pillivant - he beat the Motel keeper with a great chip from the edge of the penalty area.
It was now all Zeal and they should have gone ahead before half-time, but a couple of great pull-backs by Alan Vile, which were scrambled away by the Motel defence and a shot from Roger White that went narrowly over the bar, allowed the visitors to stay in the game, With ten minutes of the first half remaining, Motel went 2-1 up when a mix-up in the Zeal defence gave them a soft goal.
In the second half Zeal dominated and equalised after ten minutes when Steve Pillivant converted a penalty for his second goal after a handball by a Motel defender.
Alan Brimacombe and Alan Vile were causing the Motel defence all sorts of problems and were unlucky not to have put Zeal ahead. But halfway through the second half Henry Bellairs broke out of defence and played a couple of one twos with Harley Cann then hit an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net to put Zeal 3-2 up.
Zeal created many more chances and sealed victory ten minutes from time when Alan Vile hit the roof of the net for a well deserved goal after being put through by Alan Brimacombe.
This week Zeal are away to University, meet at Kings Arms at 1.15pm.