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Teignmouth Town 1, Exmouth Town 6

Exmouth Town overcame a potential banana skin in emphatic style as they dispatched Teignmouth 6-1 with a hat trick from Ace High, writes John Dibsdall.

Town made the perfect start when High opened the scoring in the first minute reacting quickest to lash home a loose ball as Teignmouth failed to deal with a well taken corner. Four minutes later the position was reversed as Town could only half clear a corner and then failed to close down the player on the edge of the box who duly found the corner of the goal. Whilst Town looked dangerous every time they attacked Teignmouth too had their moments and twice hit the woodwork as Town’s normally immaculate defence appeared a little rusty. Not for the first time this season Lloyd Gardner was proving a handful and eventually he was fouled one time too many. Picking himself up he calmly slotted home from the penalty spot.

A 2-1 interval lead was very welcomed against a side that are particularly strong on their own patch. Seven minutes into the second half and the match was effectively over as a contest. The third goal came when a driven cross from Gardner was turned into his own net by a covering defender and a minute later it was four.

Breaking out of defence Sam Woodin made a powerful run found Ben Shephard on the right and his first time cross was headed down by Dan Boere for High to score his second of the game.

Teignmouth, who were virtually at full strength for this match, then enjoyed a quarter of an hour during which they forced Liam Jones to make two useful saves but two more goals in the final ten minutes added icing to the cake. First Adam Fowler saw his twenty yard drive hit a defender and then loop over the stranded ‘keeper and High sealed his hat trick heading home a pinpoint cross from Phil Everett. In this period Town could easily have added to their tally as they opened up the defence in every attack.

This win kept Town firmly in the driving seat at the top of the league and this should be consolidated this Saturday when they are home to Crediton United (kick off 2.15 pm). The visitors are currently going through a transitional period having lost a number of players following the resignation of their manager earlier in the season.

Last Saturday they lost 4-2 at Alphington and are currently languishing at the wrong end of the table.

Under new manager and ex-Town player John Veale they will I’m sure be fully motivated for this match and will look to raise their game accordingly.