Exmouth Town 2-6 Tiverton Town

Five weeks on from their last outing, the least said about which the better and with no clear idea as to when the 2020/21 season will be allowed to resume, the Yellows returned to the fray and made the short trip south to Southern Road, the home of Exmouth Town FC, for a friendly to maintain some levels of match and individual fitness on a bitterly cold afternoon.

New signing Austen Booth made his first appearance since joining from Buckland Athletic and Harvey Paul, who has recently returned to the UK from a football scholarship in the USA, was given 45 minutes.

For fear of sounding too cliche, a game of two halves was served up. The Yellows dished out five strokes of the cane in the opening forty-five and to quote a home supporter, “this could be double figures” (minus the expletives) and but for some wayward shooting and several outstanding saves from the hosts keeper Rob Powell, the afore mentioned gentleman would have been correct. To their credit thought the hosts steadied the ship and were full value for their second half win as they scored twice before the Yellows added their sixth.

Jared Lewington opened the scoring in the Yellows first attack of the afternoon, his deflected shot wrong-footed Powell after two minutes and Dan Hayfield doubled the lead 10 minutes later, stroking home a Lewington cross. The Premier South top scorer Alex Fletcher added the third and fifth goals, heading home Dan Hayfield crosses on both occasions, either side of Jordan Lam tapping home from a matter of inches from a Fletcher cross.

Mike Humphries drilled home a shot from the edge of the area on the hour to give the scoreline some respectability and Aaron Denny fired home from the penalty spot seven minutes from the end of time before Chris Shephard completed the scoring five minutes later with a crisp, left foot shot that beat Powell at his near post.

Tiverton Town: Lewis Williams (Jack Pepperell 80), Kyle Egan (Billy Craske 60), Craig Woodman, Austen Booth, Michael Peck, Neil Martin (Harvey Paul 45), Jordan Lam (Jordan Bastin 45), Dan Hayfield, Jared Lewington, Alex Fletcher, Andy Watkins (Chris Shephard 45).

Goals: Jared Lewington 2 Dan Hayfield 12 Alex Fletcher 25, 42 Jordan Lam 39 Chris Shephard 88.

Attendance: 132.