NEWTON ABBOT SPURS 2 - CREDITON UNITED 1

CREDITON travelled to a sunny Newton Abbot on Saturday, April 30 but there was a whole host of absentees. Regulars Waring, Trenaman, Blake, Jordan, Carpenter, Khoo, Broome and Parsons were all unavailable meaning a makeshift line-up.

Creddy fielded a 4-4-1-1 formation with Tarji Jones, Nathan Guppy, Ollie Collins and Josh Badham all making their debuts or first starts in a long time. The average age of the starting line up was just 22 meaning a youthful look.

The game started with the hosts well on top and outnumbering us in the middle of the park. Spurs took the lead on just four minutes, a left-wing cross was only headed to the edge of the box by Durrant and Adam Dyson half volleyed home into the corner to give the hosts the lead.

Creddy didn’t learn their lesson and the lead was doubled on 10 minutes. Too much time was given to the Spurs winger and his inch-perfect cross found Dyson from eight yards who volleyed home into the same spot as the first goal.

From here the young Creddy side could have buckled but they slowly started to get a foothold in the game. Tyler Cooke was looking very dangerous in the hole and caused the home defence problems when he was running with the ball.

Creddy got back into the game on 25 minutes, a left-wing pass from Badham found Tarji Jones who found a clever low finish across the ‘keeper to bring us back into the game.

A fantastic defence saving tackle from Nathan Guppy prevented Dyson going through and Ollie Collins cleared off the line from a corner as the hosts were still dominating the middle of the park, but the score remained the same at the break.

In the second half Creddy changed to a 4-3-3 and this saw the balance of play even out due to our extra player in the middle of the park.

However, Spurs had the first two chances of the second half as a Jack Chisholm strike from 16 yards was saved by the legs of Nathan Keast and then a rasping volley from Dyson was palmed to safety.

At the other end a 25-yard strike from Cooke just went over the top. On 70 minutes Nigel Harris replaced Badham to increase our average age from 22 all the way up to 32 by himself!

The last 15 minutes saw Spurs play on the counter and Creddy trying to create some pressure on the hosts goal.

The final chance fell perfectly to Guppy on 88 minutes. His strike from 18 yards was not quite set wide enough and the Spurs ‘keeper was able to tip around the posts.

Ultimately another defeat for us and the story of our season conceding soft early goals and not being able to force our way back into matches.

Spurs were the better team in the first half but having shaded the second we felt a point would have been justified.

Nathan Keast