CREDITON UNITED 4-0 OKEHAMPTON ARGYLE

I STROLLED down to Lords Meadow for the local derby against Okehampton and got the sad news that local stalwart and football man Andre Pike had passed away at the weekend which was very sad news indeed.

A bumper crowd was therefore in evidence and not only a minute's silence but a minute's applause happened before the game. Andre will be very sadly missed by all of us at Lords Meadow.

To the football, well it was a classic game of two halves as far as the scoreline went but during the first half, although Crediton could have scored, they didn't and it took the introduction of former star Shay Corrick at the beginning of the second half to completely change fortunes in Crediton’s direction.

Shay is head and shoulders above at this level and showed it. After a grand comeback against Middlezoy at the weekend, this was just the fill-up that the home side needed as they attempted to dig themselves out of the bottom three.

They played two up front with Seb Roach and Tariq Gasmi, who was a tireless force throughout. Tariq could have had three or goals in the first half and indeed hit the post twice but the most important incident was the sending off of Okey’s number 6 Hewings for an outrageous foul right in front of the ref who had no difficulty in sending him for the early bath and bringing Okehampton down to 10 for the duration. So it was 0-0 at half time.

When Shay came on, though, things moved at a pace and he soon opened the scoring with a splendid shot into the corner of the Okey net which left the keeper grasping at thin air. 1-0 after 57 minutes.

Soon there was a second, as Seb Roach sent a sweet volley home from a corner on the right. 2-0 after 77.

It was now all Crediton and in the last couple of minutes they scored two more.

The first a sweet left foot shot from sub Thierno Lo flew past the goalie and on the stroke of full time Shay Corrick clipped the ball into the path of Seb Roach who scored his second and Crediton’s fourth for 4-0.

The score was a bit tough on Okehampton who battled away without much luck but sent Crediton up to the heights of 13th in the table with a trip to Bishops Lydeard on Saturday pending.

The home side now hold the honours in this derby match after winning at Okey last month.

Crediton team: Slade, Shaw, Gething, McKenzie, Garnsworthy, Perry, Littlejohns, Aldrich, Roach, Butterfield, Fever. Subs: Corrick, Lo, Smith, Leach, Male.

Man of the match: Tariq Gasmi.

Paul Whittall