Pride For Hill

Drama at Exmouth Town

There was drama at Exmouth Town on Saturday where the home side recovered from being 3-1 down with just five minutes to go to take their Isuzu FA Trophy tie with in-form Wimborne Town to penalties following a 3-3 draw.

The story was complete when they converted all five of their spot-kicks to prosper 5-3.

Both teams have had very different starts to the season in the Pitching In Southern League Division One South. Exmouth are yet to taste victory with two defeats and two draws, whilst Wimborne have three wins and a draw from their four outings so far.

But at the weekend it was Exmouth who snatched victory from the claws of defeat to progress in the competition.

“I’m delighted,” beamed manager, Kevin Hill, at the end. “We haven’t had great cup runs in the last couple of years, and especially coming up against Wimborne who are the favourites for the League.

“We set up differently, to nullify their number 10s, but when they went down to ten men, I didn’t need that extra man at the back, so we had a go and to go 2-0 down was a sucker-punch.

“I said to the lads, if we work harder than them we have a chance, they’ll move the ball around well but as long as we keep our shape, and even in the first half with the possession they had, we had more chances.

“With the extra man, I was always going to bring Ben Steer on and leave him out wide, and that’s what I wanted him to do as we had nothing to lose, and I thought he was excellent.

“We don’t practice penalties; when we had to decide who our five takers were going to be, only two players volunteered, James Richards and Jordan Harris, but even if we had lost on penalties I would have been proud of the performance.”

It’s back to League business on Saturday for Exmouth as they head to Willand Rovers.

Exmouth Town Web Site