Budleigh Salterton Under-16s went down in their final Exeter and District Youth League home game of the season, beaten 5-3 by visiting Heavitree Youth, writes SpursTom.
On what was most certainly the warmest footballing day of the year so far, the two teams served up some fine football.
The early exchanges were end-to-end, but it was the young Robins who struck first with Ryan Daffin the goal scorer.
At this stage the home side looked to be playing with a degree of confidence. However, in just eight first half minutes the game’s stand-out individual, Heavitree player Oliver Bray, scored what can best be described as a ‘clinical and quick-fire’ hat-trick, to put the Exeter-based side into a 3-1 lead.
Budleigh dug deep and got a break when a bizarre own goal towards the end of the half fired the home side back into the contest.
The Heavies glovesman, rushing from his line to gather a back pass, had home goal scorer Daffin also looking to get to the ball first and, inexplicably, both players’ completely ‘missed’ the ball which ended up rolling into an empty net!
Just three minutes into the second half, Budleigh had a free-kick in a good position, but the ball was cleared and, in a click counter-attack, Ryan White applied the finish to give the visitors a 4-2 lead.
The Robins refused to conceded, and, it was no more than they deserved when Daffin struck again to make it 4-3.
The eighth and final goal of the contest came from an unlikely source! In the 78th of an 80 minute encounter, a right wing free-kick to Heavitree, was taken by Edward Smith and, from fully 50 yards out, his wind-assisted kick sailed over everyone before settling in the top left hand corner of the net!
So, the home league campaign ends in defeat; but had the Robins finishing been as good as their approach play the result of this game may well have been different!
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