Devon Premier Cup

Torridgeside AFC 4

Okehampton Argyle 1

TORRIDGESIDE progressed to the second round with a comfortable win against Okehampton thanks to a hat trick from striker Marc Bettis.

A below par, lacklustre performance from Argyle provided little opposition for the North Devon League side. Torridgeside, who currently top the premier division and have ambitions of promotion to the Carlsberg South West Peninsula League next season.

Nathan Walters had opened the scoring for the hosts after only six minutes with a sweet left foot strike. Although neither side could create clear goal scoring opportunities in the first half, two bad defensive mistakes by Argyle allowed Bettis to score twice, effectively killing off the game before the break.

Okehampton strived after the interval to get something out of the game but only really succeeded in putting their own defence under much more pressure.

Fortunately the visitors’ goal led a charmed life and Harry Gearing pulled off a string of excellent saves but could not stop Bettis completing his hat trick on 70 minutes.

Argyle did get a consolation goal back when Tallan Burns, who generally had a quiet day, showed what he is capable of with a superb individual effort to reduce the deficit but there was to be no late revival and Torridgeside ran out easy winners.

Argyle will be very disappointed with this performance. They cannot afford to defend as poorly as they did and know there will have to be a big improvement before they return to league action.