football

EXMOUTH Town Under-16 were knocked out of the Club Men’s Cup after a titanic struggle against Beacon Knights.

Town began the game well, but were unable to make their dominance count and they were made to pay for some early misses when Knights struck in the 13th minute.

Within four minutes, Town were level when a half cleared corner was returned to the goal mouth by Charlie Williams where Ian Littler held it up and Ross James passed the ball into the corner of the net.

Back came the visiting side and it needed a fine save from Dillon Ashcroft to deny them a second.

In a see-saw game, at the other end of the pitch, Jordan Thompson had a shot blocked and Curtis Palmer-Brown lofted a well-struck free-kick just over the target.

Town took a 29th minute lead when James was upended in the area and Jamie Jefferies tucked the resultant penalty away and this was to be the final score of the half, Town trooping off 2-1 to the good.

Shortly after the re-start, Jefferies had a shot pushed away and James saw his goal bound effort tipped over the bar, whilst Ashcroft was then alert to deny the Exeter side an equaliser.

Just past the hour mark, Knights were level and, four minutes later, they had turned the game on its head and led 3-2.

It did not take long for Town to once again even things up, something they did as Curtis latched on to a cross to fire home.

At 3-3 the next goal was clearly going to be pivotal and it arrived, for Town, in fortuitous fashion when a Jack Thomas shot found its way into the net and now Town once again held the advantage.

In keeping with the end-to-end nature of the contest, it did not take long for Knights to draw level when they took advantage of some charitable Town defending and the match was forced into the extra half hour locked at 4-4.

Four minutes into the extra period, Jeffries put Town ahead for the third time in the contest and it so nearly got even better for the hosts when Shaun Hepburn’s goal bound effort was turned over the bar by the Knights keeper at full stretch. James then had a shot saved before, in the dying embers of the first period, the Exeter side struck to level things up with the tenth goal of the match.

With no further goals in the second period of extra-time the match went to a penalty shoot-out.

Typical of the game the side’s had played, the shoot-out also went the distance and into a sudden death.

It was the visitors nerves which stood up to the test the better as they emerged with an 8-7 penalty win!

The Town boss said: “The side battled so bravely and it was a great collective effort. But we paid the price for some slack defending - not forgetting, of course, that the whole team helps with defending, and with a little better fortune on front of goal it would have been us in the hat for the next round. Still, there remains the league campaign and another two cups still to play for, so the season has so much still to offer.”