Southern one

Ottery and Sidmouth 1

Okehampton 3

AFTER a disappointing result last week Okehampton were looking to bounce back against bottom of the league Ottery and Sidmouth. Missing a few of the regular players and just the bare eleven players this was going to be a tough game for Oke.

From the off Okehampton had a large proportion of the possession with the back three of Hall, Gers and Bourne happy to play the ball around and pick passes at ease. After some good play from the midfield trio of Luxton, Davidson and Whalley the ball found its way out to the left wing where, waiting to pounce, was Speak and with turn of pace left his man for dead. Speak, with open space in front of him picked out a lovely cross which found Jones in the D; a delightful touch from Jones took the ball away from the defender, which allowed a reverse stick shot which found the back of the net.

As the half went on neither team could establish a foothold in the game with possession swapping from team to team. With half-time in sight Watson used his speed to get into the opposition’s D and win a short corner which lead to a number of short corners for the visiting team. Eventually, with a well worked drill from the top of the D between Whalley and Luxton, the ball found its way to Hall, who coolly reverse drag flicked it into the goal. With the pace of the game starting to take its toll on the players the half time whistle rang with some much needed respite.

   The second half started with the home team coming out fighting, they enjoyed a lot of possession and territory as the Okehampton team struggled to assert themselves on the game. The home team started to put some good passes together and had it not been for some good saves from Morgan in goal and superb tracking back from the midfield and wingers, a goal seemed certain. Eventually the home field advantage paid off when a well worked move down the left wing resulted in an unmarked player in the D which he converted neatly to make the score 2-1. It looked like it was going to be a nervy final ten minutes for the Okehampton team but some good link up play from Whalley and Lawson led to an Oke penalty corner, which Whalley happily converted with an unstoppable drag flick.

At 3-1 Okehampton increased the tempo which was the final nail in the coffin for the home team with the away team comfortably seeing out the remainder of the game. Okehampton move on to their double header next weekend with league and cup games.