Exmouth Town open their 2020/21 Toolstation Western League campaign tonight with a trip to Plymouth Parkway (7.45pm).

Exmouth Town open their 2020/21 Toolstation Western League campaign tonight with a trip to Plymouth Parkway (7.45pm).

While Town had no game on Saturday, tonight’s opponents did, with Parkway winning 4-1 at Hallen.

Speaking ahead of tonight’s game, Town assistant manager Andy Rawlings said: “We had planned to train on Saturday afternoon, but we felt, with a few knocks taken in the midweek FA Cup win at Keynsham Town, a ‘day off’ for the lads would serve us better in the long run.

“It also gave Kev [Town boss Kevin Hill] and I, the chance to take in other games.”

He continued: “By a strange quirk of the fixture’ing process, we also played Parkway away in midweek very early on last season. On that occasion we played out a really close encounter that they ended up winning 1-0, but there was very little between two well-matched outfits on that occasion.”

Callum Shipton is added to an otherwise unchanged squad from last Tuesday night’s FA Cup win at Keynsham.

That tie earned Town a home game this Saturday in the FA Cup Preliminary Round with Southern League Melksham Town set to be the visitors to Southern Road (3pm).

However, as Rawlings says, the Town management will not turn their attention to the Fa Cup tie until the dust has settled on tonight’s league outing.

“Parkway obviously made a good start with Saturday’s win at Hallen, but in midweek last week they exited the FA Cup at the hands of Saltash United and that came as something of a surprise, albeit the Cornish side winning it on penalties.

“I have no doubt that the cup exit will have hurt Parkway and so it’s hard to say if that midweek game will, have any effect on them tonight.

“For our part we clearly are going to need to be ‘at it’ from the first whistle for, as we found in our two games with them last season (Town also met Parkway in a feisty Southern Road Les Philips Cup tie played in December when Town won 4-1 with goals from Ben Steer (2), Jordan Harris and Kieran Willdigg). If we are not ‘up for this’ then we’ll suffer the consequences, but the lads showed last midweek that they have worked hard in pre-season and are all in good shape both collectively and individually to face whatever challenges this season is going to throw at them.”

The Town number two rounded things off saying: “The league is our bread-and-butter and, as such, a good start to a new league campaign is what we really want and I have no doubt we will have another great backing down there in Plymouth tonight.”

You can discover how Town got on this evening at Parkway by joining us here from 10pm when we shall bring you news of the game.

The Toolstation Western League results from matchday one – Saturday, September 5.

Brislington 4-3 Bradford Town – Att: 124

Buckland Athletic 4-2 Bridgwater Town – Att: 161

Cadbury Heath 7-3 Wellington – Att: 79

Chipping Sodbury Town 1-5 Tavistock – Att: 88

Clevedon Town 1-1 Westbury United – Att: 96

Cribbs 6-1 Bridport – Att: 75

Hallen 1-4 Plymouth Parkway – Att: 118

Odd Down (BATH) 1-0 Keynsham Town – Att: 97

Street 2-2 Shepton Mallet – Att: 168

Tonight’s league action

Premier Division

Bitton AFC vs Brislington – 7:30

Bridgwater Town vs Clevedon Town – 7:45

Bridport vs Street – 7:45

Keynsham Town vs Cribbs – 7:45

Plymouth Parkway vs Exmouth Town – 7:45

Shepton Mallet vs Wellington AFC – 7:30

And the games being played tomorrow (Wednesday)

Bradford Town vs Odd Down – 7:30

Cadbury Heath vs Hallen – 7:30

Tavistock AFC vs Buckland Athletic – 7:30

Westbury Utd vs Chipping Sodbury – 7:30