South West Peninsula division one east

Okehampton Argyle 2

Budleigh Salterton 4

ON a grey day these two teams turned in a bright afternoon’s entertainment with both sides committed and physical without going too far.

Argyle were again stretched to field a side with four players away watching the Plymouth Argyle and Exeter City derby match and three others unavailable.

Goalkeeper Harry Geering turned out at centre-forward with Aaron Dearing, home from university, filling in between the sticks and performing well. Veteran Roger Bonaparte missed the kick off but started as a substitute along with manager Jamie Ware. Kyler Burns, also home from university, had an excellent game at full back.

The visiting Robins took the lead in the 26th minute as Mark Lever shot home low from close range with the Okes’ defence guilty of leaving him unmarked.

Any thoughts that the hosts, sitting bottom of the table, were going to be a push-over were soon ended when James Williams levelled with a powerful header some nine minutes before the half time whistle, getting on the end of Dale Chadwick’s long free kick.

The second half saw the visitors restore their lead just after the hour mark as Jack Greenslade supplied the ball for Mark Lever to net his second goal. Ten minutes later Callum Shipton cleverly rolled the Argyle defender and scored with a looping shot from wide on the left to give the Robins a two goal advantage.

Okehampton refused to give up and with just seven minutes left on the clock, Brad Ausden broke past his man on the left and scored with a superb curling shot to make it 2-3 and set up a tense finale. Argyle tried to force an equaliser but with time fast running out Reece Stevens’ free kick was turned in by Mark Lever to complete his hat-trick and give the visitors all three points.

Argyle worked hard as a team throughout and deserved a few more lucky breaks. They were certainly not outclassed by a team who had put seven past them earlier in the season.