Crediton United 4 v Elmore AFC 3

I HAVE watched Crediton AFC many times during the last 30 or so years but rarely have I seen such an amazing game as last night (Friday, October 22) at the Lords Meadow pitch.

Crediton and Elmore are both languishing in the bottom half of the table so an evenly fought match was expected but surely no-one could have expected a game like we got.

Under lights it was hard to spot which team was which with Crediton in their blue and Elmore arriving in a dark green which was surprisingly allowed by referee Mitchell.

It’s been a while since Crediton’s last league win which was a 7-0 thrashing of Honiton back in September.

It was good to see the returning Simon Durrant in midfield alongside captain Dave Lee.

However it was Elmore who burst out of the tracks and within 10 minutes were 2-0 up.

The Crediton defence looked very fragile especially on the left side as time and time again Elmore burst through.

Although Crediton pulled a goal back through young striker Leyton Cooper, Elmore scored again so with only 15 minutes gone Crediton looked all done.

Although both teams huffed and puffed the whole game was a bit of a scramble and if anything it looked like Elmore would score again.

The players trudged off at half-time and there looked to be no way back for the Kirton.

The second half opened with Elmore bursting through and narrowly managed to fluff a brilliant chance to make it four. Manager Matt Trenaman threw on veteran Richard Groome and forward Will Hammill with the second half at its infancy and this proved a master stroke as particularly Hammill made a telling influence on the game, but with 15 minutes to go the score was still 3-1 to the visitors and the crowd were sleeping.

Suddenly the whole game changed on its head as Guy Allum’s cross ball found Simon Durrant whose deft flick found Leyton Cooper who volleyed home for 2-3.

Perhaps there was hope after all. A couple of minutes on Guy Allum did one of his specials.

He had had a quiet game up to now but unleashed a wonderful left footer into the top corner with the goalie nowhere.

The crowd of 106 had now well and truly awakened from their slumbers and started to cheer on the Kirton and with a couple of minutes left the unthinkable happened as sub Will Hammill collected a pass midway into the Elmore half and after brushing off two defenders hit a left footer that roared into the Elmore net 4-3! Simply astonishing.

Then it was over and although Elmore must be disappointed this was a wonderful evening that came out of nowhere and must surely give Crediton some confidence for the game on Saturday, October 30 versus Stoke Gabriel away.

Paul Whittall