Carlsberg South West Peninsula League division one East

Okehampton Argyle 2

Galmpton Utd 2

ARGYLE put in a spirited performance to take a point off the current league leaders despite missing regulars Ed Squire and Alex Wren.

This was a tremendous 'never-say-die' performance and Okehampton twice came back from being a goal down and could have won the match in the closing minutes.

Galmpton looked the slicker side early on and their attack put together some good moves but their defence never looked comfortable against Argyle's forwards.

The visitors took the lead on 16 minutes, when a tremendous in-swinging corner from the left had the Argyle defence in trouble. Keeper Harry Geering punched it out but the ball fell on to the head of Galmpton's Alex Bayliss who nodded the ball home off the crossbar. Ten minutes later, Okehampton drew level when they won a direct free kick wide on the left. Chris Hollands' beautifully flighted deep kick saw visiting keeper Matt Congdon completely miss the ball as John Coakley jumped for it and the ball flew directly into the far top corner of the net.

Both teams strove to edge into the lead as the interval approached but there was no further scoring before the break.

Only a minute into the second half, Galmpton regained the lead. With Argyle appealing for handball, the visitors worked the ball from midfield down the right and a good deep cross found the league's leading scorer Dan Rankin in space on the left of the goal. He made no mistake as he volleyed the ball home giving Geering no chance. Five minutes later, the referee Sam Littlefair who had an excellent match, brought both teams off for four minutes to sit out a fierce Dartmoor hailstorm. On resumption, both teams put together some good moves as the game swung from end to end, but it was Argyle who got the breakthrough to equalise on 52 minutes.

Midfielder Benn McIvaney fired a tremendous cross into the Galmpton box and Congdon mishandled the ball for the alert Ed Bradshaw to follow up and tap home the loose ball under pressure from a defender. Galmpton put in an all out onslaught on the home defence in the last 15 minutes in an attempt to extend their lead at the top of the table. However, despite the quality of the Galmpton forwards, Argyle's back four of Wills, Williams, McGratton and Hollands were more than a match for them and put in some tremendous ball winning tackles and showed great command in the air.

The Oke midfield of McIvaney, Chadwick and Crimmins covered all of the field supporting their defence and creating openings on the break. Up front Kinsey, Bradshaw and the non-stop running of John Coakley constantly worried the visitors' defence. In fact, Argyle came close to winning this match as Crimmins freed Bradshaw on the left and his pin point cross put Coakley in with just Congdon to beat, but the visiting keeper was up to the challenge and saved the shot.

This was a tremendous team performance for Argyle who worked really hard throughout the 90 minutes, but man of the match goes to Benn McIvaney for his probing crosses and ball winning tackles as well as the amount of ground he covered.

n Argyle reserves are home to Awliscombe Utd in division four of the Devon and Exeter league, kick-off 3pm.

n The Argyle 200 club draw winner of March 23, with ticket number 37 was L Phare, who won £25.