South West Peninsula League Premier East

Cullompton Rangers 0 Okehampton Argyle 4

OKEHAMPTON Argyle put in a tremendous, hardworking performance against second-placed Cullompton Rangers, to ensure all three points and move to the top of the table, writes Charlie Bond.

This was despite missing long-term injured players Luke Reynolds and Luke Alden as well as influential captain Alex Gray, which necessitated a rearrangement to the midfield.

Argyle started off really well and the opening minutes saw some lovely layoffs by Dan Koita and quick-fire exchanges of passes between the Okehampton forwards.

Cullompton showed why they are high up the league by putting the Okes' defence under pressure but the back four of Dom Harnell, Steve Goss, Jake Rowe and Josh Robbins looked very strong and keeper Jack Arthur was not really troubled.

Okehampton took the lead after 15 minutes when a good ball into the box from the left saw a mix-up in the Cullompton defence, leaving Luke Mortimore free to head into an empty net. The game continued in a very competitive manner and Argyle really needed another goal to make it safe. They thought they had the chance two minutes before half-time when Dan Koita rounded his defender and appeared to be brought down in the box, but the referee waved off the appeals.

The first half-hour of the second half saw both sides striving for the next goal and Cullompton put Argyle’s defence under pressure. The defence held firm with all the team working hard to keep the ball away from danger areas, the only real Cullompton chance coming when a deflected shot was brilliantly stopped at full stretch by Jack Arthur.

After 75 minutes, a good through ball saw Dan Koita burst through the home defence and fire home into an empty net to give Okehampton the breathing space they needed. Argyle then took off Jamal Bokhammas, who had worked hard in a holding midfield position in his first game back following injury and brought on promising young forward Owen Pickard with Luke Mortimore dropping back into midfield.

Shortly afterwards, full back Harnell had to come off with a worrying recurrence of an ankle injury and had to be replaced by Sam Lynam, returning from a broken ankle. The defence remained strong despite the rearrangement and on 85 minutes a lovely forward ball found Pickard in the box where he was pulled down. Josh Coles crashed home the resulting penalty for 3-0.

Argyle rested Jake Rowe at this stage and brought on Joel Thorne for the remainder of the game and he slotted in well. As full-time approached, a lovely through ball into the box from wide on the left found Pickard who carried it into the box and fired home to complete the scoring.

This was a great all-round team performance with the rearranged midfield of Craig Penberthy, Jamal Bokhammas and Adam Bilcock working really hard throughout the match but, the Man of the Match had to be centre-back Steve Goss.

A worry for Argyle is the injury to Dominic Harnell with the very important FA Vase match at higher level Portishead coming up next Saturday.

Next Saturday, Okehampton are away to Portishead Town in the FA Vase with a 3pm kick-off.