CHAGFORD Football Club first team recovered from a difficult start, truly finding their form just before the Christmas break which they then carried through into the new year, striking a rich vein of form.

Fifteen wins from their last 18 matches drove the team up to third place and promotion to Devon and Exeter division one. Goals flowed from all the forward, attack thinking players led by Reuben Sampson, young Franky Astill-Sheppard, skipper Andrew Davis and Josh Stanbury.

Plenty of goals came from other areas and contributed to a grand total of 95.

Club secretary John Pearce thanked the hard work of manager Duncan Vincent, assisted on matchdays by Mick Fillery.

He said: ‘The whole squad’s attitude has been spot on yet again.’

The Reserves enjoyed their best season for a time, earned a deserved third place in division nine and made it to the third round of the DCFA Intermediate Cup. Goals have been hard to come by in recent years but the signing of Darren Siwiec, the transfer in of Nathan Hubble and the emergence of another youngster, Kes Hirst, helped the squad to score a total of 71 goals. Sixty of these came in a severely depleted division that yielded just 18 matches per team.

John added: ‘Manager, Simon Ralph and skipper Rob Thorn have led by example on the pitch and fostered a much improved comradeship within the squad. A couple of decent players have fallen by the wayside but the remainder responded together to drive on to a thrilling end-of-season finale.

‘The club thank our sponsors, supporters, volunteers and our local press for all their backing and help over the season.’