Exmouth Town completed their home programme in their Southern League campaign with a frustrating performance against Paulton Rovers last Saturday, writes John Dibsdall.

The visitors from Somerset came into this game having won just one of their 18 games since beating Town 2-1 in the reverse fixture in December and without a win during 2024.

The opening exchanges saw both sides trying to build attacks without looking dangerous until Town opened the scoring on 25 minutes after good build-up play, an excellent cross from Ace High and a bullet header from Tom Bath, scoring his 12th goal of the campaign.

With a fine recent record at home, Town’s fans were expecting their side to go on and secure another convincing victory but that failed to materialise. The first half ended with neither side threatening either goal and Exmouth started the second half again on the front foot.

Josh Cann fired past the ‘keeper but his effort was ruled out for offside and a similar move that produced the goal with High crossing for another Bath header but this time being denied by a good save.

Paulton were now pushing forward and equalised with a well-taken goal on 55 minutes. As Town looked to respond, the spark and quality that has been so evident in recent games was clearly missing.

Too many passes going astray and no real intensity from Town meant it clearly looked like an end of season game with nothing at stake. For Paulton, despite relegation being a formality, they clearly wanted to end their winless run and deservedly scored the winner with another excellent finish to complete the double.

Unfortunate as this performance and result were, it should not detract from what has been an incredible achievement in the second half of the season to come from the depths of despair with relegation looking a certainty to know there will be Southern League football for Town next season.

Town complete their season with a trip to Mousehole on Tuesday evening with the Cornish side sitting sixth in the table and looking to achieve a play-off spot.