Budleigh Salterton Under-15s were in fine form when they visited Whipton Youth in pursuit of Exeter and District Youth League, defeating the Exeter side 5-2, writes SpursTom.

Several of the present Budleigh squad played under the Whipton coach when he was the manager of Lympstone. Both teams made bright starts. The home side forced three corners early on, but it was Whipton glovesman who made the games first wonderful save to deny Budleigh the lead.

That was as good as it got for the young Robins for they found themselves playing on the back foot for much of the first half.

Whipton broke the deadlock with a strike that owed much to good fortune and that proved to be the only goal of a closely contested first half with the Budleigh defence doing well on a number of occasions to such a degree that half time came with the one goal still separating the teams.

During the interval words of encouragement were given by the visitor's management team, and they certainly worked!

Within four minutes of the Sazid Haque struck twice to enable the Robins to turn a one goal deficit into a 2-1 lead! Haque's second goal was a header from a well-flighted corner taken by Jor Gosling.

Once ahead, the Robins began to play with real confidence and Charlie Precious was instigator of the next two goals, both scored by Tom Rowell. Scorer then turned provider as Rowell provided the pass that set up Haque to complete his hat-trick.

The home side had the final say with what was arguably the best goal of the game - a tremendous free-kick from Stasiu Halbina, but it came too late to deny Budleigh for whom defenders Wilfred Bryant, Devon Toms, Kyle Stevens, Lewis Beer, and Man of the Match, right wing back Caleb Kelsall, were simply outstanding as a unit.