There was drama at the foot of the Pitching In Southern League Premier South where seven clubs went into Saturday’s action determined to avoid the final two relegation spots that were yet to be confirmed.
Sitting in one of those relegation places at the start of the day were Tiverton Town, but they managed to claw themselves out of it with a 3-2 victory over Marlow, combined with results elsewhere also going in their favour.
It proved to be a successful end to the season for Asa Hall who took on the managerial responsibilities alongside his playing role at the club ten weeks ago.
“I think when I took over, the Board only gave me a 20% chance of guiding us to safety,” he said. “We always knew that it was going to be a tough ask; I took on this job with my eyes wide open, but the players have responded brilliantly.
“We’ve played some really good football and six clean sheets from ten games gave us a solid platform to build from.
“Saturday was always going to be nervy. We managed to get our noses in front during the first half but were pegged back with 20 minutes to go.
“Fair play to the lads because we were able to regain the lead pretty quickly and then add a third goal late on, but even then we allowed them to pull one back and it made for a tense finish.
“We certainly make life hard for ourselves, but we did what we had to do and to pull ourselves out of the relegation places is a brilliant achievement by everyone involved.
“We don’t want to be involved in this kind of battle every season, though, and we have to ensure that next season we can avoid this kind of drama at the wrong end of the table.
“It’s great that we can look forward to life at Step 3 again next season and not a bad start to my managerial career!”
The Devon outfit finished the season two places clear of the relegation zone with 47 points to their name, just a point ahead of Winchester City who dropped into the bottom four on goal difference from Bracknell Town on the final day.
IMAGE: Tiverton Town FC
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