Exmouth Town reached the quarter-finals of the Devon St. Lukes Bowl with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Cullompton Rangers last Wednesday evening, writes John Dibsdall.

Callum Shipton opened the scoring when he robbed a defender and shot into the bottom corner. The lead was doubled when Levi Landricombe was brought down and then convert from the penalty spot.

Within seconds of coming on as a substitute, Ben Steer ran in the third for his 50th competitive goal for the club. There was a late consolation goal for the visitors as they also converted a penalty. Town will travel to Newton Abbot Spurs for the quarter-final in January.

In sharp contrast, Exmouth were soundly beaten at Larkhall Athletic last Saturday as they suffered their heaviest league defeat since Kevin Hill became manager, going down 5-0.

They made the worst possible start conceding two goals in the opening five minutes, but should have pulled a goal back when Dave Rowe saw his free header saved.

An injury to Nelson Iscguan didn’t help and the hosts scored their third with 37 minutes played. Fine saves from Andrew Sowden-Bird kept the deficit to three at half-time but Town continued to be overrun at the start of the second half.

Larkhall’s fourth came on 58 minutes, the referee overruling his assistant’s flag for offside. Brave blocks and another superb save prevented a nap hand of goals until the 75th minute when a free header at the far post was too powerful to save.

Much for the management team to ponder on with Town now, having conceded seventeen goals in their last six games since their 4-1 win at Bishops Cleeve. One of those goals was the 1-0 defeat at home to Tavistock when Town completely outplayed their Devon rivals, missed a penalty and then were caught by a sucker punch late on.

Tavistock have since gone on a run that now sees them seventh in the table and Town will have to find similar form, as they sit five points adrift at the foot of the table.

It won’t be easy this Saturday when Cribbs FC are the visitors to their Circle of Care Community Stadium. The Bristol side defeated league leaders Wimborne Town last Saturday and have risen to fifth in the table.