Southern one

Torquay 1

Okehampton 3

OKEHAMPTON men travelled to Torquay off the back of two great results last weekend.

Although the intention was to sit back, Torbay invited the early pressure from Oke and with a great press from Jack Watson and skills in the middle from Luke Miller, the visitors turned over the ball frequently and within minutes Sam Whalley used fancy stick-work to cross the ball to James Stevens who buried it in the goal.

Injury caused Simon Bourne to swap with Neil Rowlands, who had a sterling game in the left-back slot, supported by an seemingly impen-etrable combination of James Rogers and Rob Hall.

Luke Liversidge commanded the midfield, orchest-rating a well disciplined and structured approach from the visitors.

At the start of the second half, Torbay turned the screw and Oke soaked up huge amounts of pressure. Keen not to allow the win to escape from them, Okehampton still looked for opportunities but could not make the breakthrough for the all important second goal. Things became scrappy in the centre of the park and a unfortunately timed tackle led to a yellow card for the visiting side.

With nine minutes to go a second yellow card resulted in Okehampton being reduced to 10 men for the second time in the game.

Torbay sensed they could seize the opportunity to capitalise on the man advantage and heaped pressure onto Okehampton.

While pressing Torbay continued to press high, man of the match Caleb Bourne made a crucial interception midway in his own half. Beating the left back and driving towards the goal, he steadied himself and slapped the ball into the far corner of the goal.

Torbay’s heads dropped as did their discipline, two cards reduced them to nine men. During this time Okehampton killed the game off with Sam Whalley beautifully flicking the ball into the net from a penalty corner.

From a lapse of concentration in the last minute, Torbay secured and converted a penalty corner much to the dismay of the up and coming keeper Jacob Jones after a flawless performance.