Carlsberg South West Peninsula division one East

Okehampton Argyle 0

Axminster Town 7

Okehampton Argyle returned to action with their first game under new manager Roger Bonaparte, but any hope for a turn in their fortunes was dispelled by a very good Axminster side who played a fast moving game with good teamwork.

Argyle matched the visitors for the first 20 minutes and the game seemed finely balanced but once Axminster had taken the lead, their superior teamwork and organisation saw them score goals with ease.

After 24 minutes, the visiting ‘Tigers’ took the lead when Argyle’s defence was pulled too far towards the visitors attacking on the right and Liam Cleal was left with acres of space wide on the left. As the ball was switched out to him, he ran on and gave Aaron Dearing no chance in the Oke goal.

Thirteen minutes later, Axminster scored the goal of the game as Cleal played a lovely one-two before crashing the ball home from the left of the box.

The game was over six minutes later when Lee Coleman’s late tackle brought down Mark Smale in the box and Luke Finn dispatched the penalty.

The second half saw Argyle press forward to try to save the game but too often they left Axminster players unmarked at the back.

Four minutes after the break, the Tigers’ Elliot Dyer headed home from a corner and three minutes after this the score was increased to 5-0 when poor marking by Argyle at a free kick allowed Gary Spiller to fire home.

Okehampton did put some pressure on in the next half-hour and Adam Mortimer and Ross Voaden caused some problems for the Tigers’ defence, but on 82 minutes, Aaran Dearing was adjudged to have brought down Oscar as he ran through the home defence and Gary Spiller fired home the penalty.

Two minutes from time, Liam Cleal capped an excellent day for him self as he completed his hat-trick with a finish from close in.