Exmouth Town make the long trip to Mousehole on Easter Monday in good spirits following their 3-1 victory over Willand Rovers last Saturday, writes John Dibsdall.
Mousehole are currently occupying one of the promotion play-off places and the sides drew 2-2 on Boxing Day.
This Saturday, Frome Town are the visitors to Southern Road and they are currently second in the league, and then on Tuesday evening Town travel to Westbury United, who are one of their rivals to avoid relegation.
Town’s highest attendance in Southern League football watched this game and the 538 spectators were treated to an entertaining match with both sides looking to attack.
After a scrappy opening ten minutes, play settled down with Willand in the ascendency and they opened the scoring on 18 minutes. In a goalmouth scramble, Town had opportunities to clear the ball but it eventually fell to Charlie Wright, who calmly slotted home.
Town’s equaliser came on 31 minutes with Ace High heading home a Callum Shipton cross. Minutes later, George Burton in the Willand goal stood up strong to deny Tom Bath and the sides were level at the break.
Having finished the half strongly, Town maintained the pressure at the start of the second period. After High had narrowly missed from a Shipton cross, Town took the lead on 56 minutes.
Another quick break from Shipton and this time his cross found Tom Bath, who calmly beat his marker to fire low and hard into the bottom corner.
As Willand looked to respond, Town had one piece of good fortune when a powerful shot from Craig Duff hit the inside of the post and was eventually cleared before a header by High on 83 minutes from a Josh Cann corner gave Town a two-goal cushion.
Good game management and one important save from Chris Wright eventually saw Town play out the eight minutes of added time for another crucial three points.
Whilst there were strong candidates for Man of the Match, including Callum Shipton, the Match sponsors, The Exeter City branch of The Muff Town Casuals gave the accolade to the two-goal hero Ace High, who has now scored 139 goals in Town’s colours.
With Paulton Rovers and Westbury United both losing, Town have also climbed above the latter and are eight points clear of Paulton before the Easter Monday fixtures.
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