East Budleigh returned to winning ways last Saturday in Macron League Division Seven with a slender 2-1 victory over the bottom club North Tawton thanks to a late winner from Dan Atkinson, writes Mark Auton.

The away side battled well for a team with just one league victory to their name in the campaign so far.

Budleigh were having the better of the first half and went closest through George Harris and Hugo Demetre, before eventually breaking the deadlock after 39 minutes; Jacob Rice produced a fine pass for Demetre who provided the perfect assist for Harris who neatly slotted the ball into the corner of the net.

After the interval, Budleigh continued to search for a second; Liam West had the best opportunity but was denied by the visiting keepers block.

Ten minutes from time Budleigh were shocked when Tawton broke away and produced an equalizer.

By now Budleigh had sent on Liam Matthew, Joel Rendell and Atkinson and it was the latter that grabbed Budleigh’s winner and a get out of jail card; Demetre played the through ball, Atkinson muscled his way through and not giving up on the situation, was in the right place to pick up on a goalkeeping error to tap the ball into the net.

Man of the match went to Demetre who just shaded the performance of Harris.

This Saturday Budleigh are back on the road at Axmouth.

East Budleigh Reserves were beaten for the second consecutive week 3-1 at Bickleigh. Jack Hocking headed a consolation for Budleigh who will be in determined mood to get their own back when they host the same side at Vicarage Road this Saturday.