South West Peninsula Division One East

Exwick Villa 2

Okehampton Argyle 1

ARGYLE are still without a win after 20 league games but if lady luck had been a little kinder, they would have come away from Exeter with a share of the points.

As it was, this was a game of two halves with Exwick having the upper hand throughout the first 45 minutes; but Argyle came back strongly after the break to keep the result in doubt right up to the final whistle.

Argyle started the game with a deep back three and two wing backs playing high up the pitch. This suited Exwick, who constantly played the ball along the flanks and behind the wing backs putting the Okehampton defence under pressure from crosses. On 14 minutes, a superb long cross by Villa’s Ted Farmer found one Okey defender trying to deal with three home forwards and Matt Byrne was able to power home a header to give the home side the lead.

Shortly after this, Argyle had debutant keeper Josh Townsend to thank for keeping them in the game with a point blank save followed by a tremendous save on the goal line from a follow up shot.

Just before the half hour mark, Villa’s Stuart Francis scored the goal of the game when he fired home an unstoppable shot from 30 yards. Okehampton tried to fight back and made some promising moves but the Villa defence was dominant in the air against the Argyle strike force.

The second half was a different affair with Ross Voaden beginning to worry the home defence and Alex Wren dominating midfield.

Ten minutes into the half Voaden and Will Hawking combined in a good move with the ball running lose to Ed Bradshaw in the area. His fierce shot had the misfortune to cannon back off the underside of the crossbar with Villa keeper Fred Tonkin beaten; the home defence was able to scramble the ball clear. On 58 minutes, Argyle clawed themselves back into the match as another good forward move saw the ball break loose to Steve Kinsey who fired home from close in.

Despite a tremendous final effort from Okehampton, they were unable to produce an equalizing goal and ultimately, Villa closed the game out to take all 3 points.

Argyle were again depleted by injury and players making themselves unavailable: thanks are due to 17 year old Elliott Eavis who travelled all the way from Bournemouth to have a fine debut at centre back; to Bow players Will Hawking, Dean Jones and Grant Vincent and to Navy keeper Josh Townsend for enabling Okehampton to put a competitive side out.

Alex Wren was Argyle’s outstanding player and never stopped running all day while new signing Aiden Madden had a fine game at full back after coming on as a substitute in the second half.

n On Saturday, January 30 Argyle will play Liverton United at home, kick off is 2.15pm.