Football - a generic picture

East Budleigh 2, Alphington 2

East Budleigh had to settle for a share of the spoils in their league encounter with Alphington last Saturday on what was an eventful afternoon at Vicarage Road, writes Mark Auton.

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Budleigh got off to the worse possible start when the visitors scored inside a minute.

Keeper Rob Dance did well to save the first attempt, but had no chance with the follow up.

In the eighth minute a good exchange of passes involving Aaron Denny and Scott Bellamy led to Jack Howarth being inches away from equalising from a Barnes Pendet centre.

The game came to life mid-way through the half when a long throw from Adam Jones led to a penalty award with the visiting defender adjudged to have fouled Phil Page.

Chaos erupted and a yellow card was given to a player whilst the Alphas manager was shown a red card after expressing his opinion!

Si Tuley did well to keep his nerve converting the kick after waiting a number of minutes before he could take it.

This fired up the Exeter side and they should have regained the lead from a corner and Budleigh were also thankful to Page and Dan Reynolds who both made timely interventions.

At the other end Page almost turned provider for the run of the hard working Adam Jones, but after a good first touch saw the keeper smother his shot.

In the eight minutes of stoppage time at the end of the half Alphington were reduced to ten men with the award of a second yellow to the earlier recipient of the card.

As with the first half Budleigh started sluggishly and were punished five minutes in as the away side regained the lead.

Budleigh were still giving the ball away too often despite the midfield efforts of Tuley and Denny who worked tirelessly as did front men Bellamy and Howarth.

With 20 minutes remaining Budleigh sent on former Torquay legend Kev Hill and Chris Eveleigh and both were involved in a classy 87th minute leveller: Eveleigh sprayed a fine pass thorough to Tuley whose superb cross was met with an excellent headed finish from Hill to seal a point.

Budleigh are away to Wellington this Saturday (3pm).