Walter C Parson SW Peninsula League Premier East

Crediton United 0 Okehampton Argyle 1

THIS was a hard-fought local derby between two evenly matched teams, who both played some good football on a difficult pitch soaked by heavy rainfall, reports Charlie Bond.

The game took place on Good Friday with a morning kick-off and started just after the storms had returned. It was a day for hard running and hard work in midfield and Argyle certainly came up to the mark in this respect.

Both defences came under pressure from the long ball in a very even first half but Okehampton’s back line, strengthened by Dominic Harnell, home from university, handled the Crediton forwards well.

Josh Coles worked hard up front for Okehampton with good support from Charlie Harrod and Oli Cleave and the midfield of Sean Ayre, Josh Hambleton and Josh Robbins covered a tremendous amount of ground, breaking up Crediton moves and moving the ball on to the forwards.

The best chance of the first half fell to Argyle when a corner in from the right was nodded on to captain Steve Goss at the back post but he was unable to find the net with his header.

Crediton started off strongly in the second half and Argyle had to be on their mettle to keep them out with keeper Jack Arthur forced into making one excellent save, but Okehampton gradually began to take the initiative and produced the better moves as the game progressed.

On the hour mark, Okehampton brought on 16-year-old substitute Tyler Little up front and this proved to be the game changer.

After he had only been on the field two minutes, a clever flick-on by Josh Coles released him to run clear of the home defence with tremendous speed and skill and fire home a great low shot into the bottom corner of the net from just inside the box. He could have had another minutes later when he burst past a defender and broke clear again but he let loose his shot a little too early and the keeper was able to save it.

Argyle began to put on more pressure and a header from Hambleton grazed the bar, but back came the home side and Okehampton were glad to see out the game and secure all three points.

This was a great team effort with all the squad getting some time on the field and working hard throughout, but the man of the match for this reporter was Josh Robbins. Manager Richard Washburn has certainly upped the work rate from the team and is getting a lot out of the club’s younger players.

Coming up on Saturday 26, Okehampton are away to Bishops Lydeard with a 3pm kick-off for their last game of the season.

They go into that one knowing a result of any kind would secure them sixth place in the Peninsula League standings and fend off the advances of Stoke Gabriel & Torbay Police, who were beaten away at Bovey Tracey AFC this time out.

Crediton meanwhile could feasibly finish eighth, ninth or 10th- a win for them away at the aforementioned Bovey would see them leapfrog the team from South Devon.