HONITON TOWN 2 - CREDITON UNITED 2

THIS was a game of different styles, Honiton’s long ball and bullish play versus more measured passing game of the away side.

Also the home side were noticeably bigger and Crediton, apart from the two in midfield of Dave Lee and Steve Goss, a good deal younger.

There was the surprise inclusion of Will Collins, who delighted everyone who saw him, as he scored 15 goals in 13 matches including three hat tricks earlier in the season.

Will would prove significant in this game.

Crediton got off to bad start as after not five minutes an unmarked header flew past Lewis Layton from a corner on the left.

Then we had Will Collins magic as he controlled a ball with his back to goal and lost the defender marking him before unleashing a wonderful shot that caught the Honiton keeper on his line levelling up the score at 1-1.

It was no more than Crediton deserved and it showed the few Crediton people present what we had been missing.

The teams went in at 1-1 and it felt like Crediton were the better side.

The second half began exactly like the first as Honiton took the lead only a couple of minutes in, taking the lead, 2-1.

The play started to get messy and Honiton began to dominate but a combination of missed chances and some wonderful goalkeeping from Lewis Layton kept them at bay.

Then, in the last minute of the 90 minutes the ball went into the home net via a defender and Crediton had snatched a deserved draw, 2-2.

As the game ended there was an unsavoury melee involving almost all of the players which did no one any credit and it was sometime before normality was resumed.

Paul Whittall