Exmouth Town will be hoping for a change in fortune when they welcome close rivals, Willand Rovers, to their Complete Infrastructure Stadium this Wednesday (October 16th) kick off 7.45pm.

Last Saturday they surrendered their 100% home league record to Larkhall Athletic who had previously lost all their away league fixtures. The Bath based side quickly showed they would be no walkover although it was Town who opened the scoring on twenty four minutes. A Tom Bath flick and Ben Griffith was on hand to smash the ball into the roof of the net.

Town survived a couple of goalmouth scrambles and Frankie Phillips made one superb save and whilst you could argue Larkhall deserved their equaliser once again it came in controversial circumstances. To Town’s players and supporters there looked to have been a clear foul in the build up but play was allowed to continue and a controlled finish saw the sides go in level at the break.

The second half was a scrappy affair until the seventy fourth minute when the left full back picked the ball up some forty yards from goal, drove forward to unleash a thirty yard rocket of a shot low and true into the bottom corner giving Phillips no chance. Worse was to follow when two minutes later more hesitancy in the Exmouth defence allowed an attacker time and space to score the third.

As Town tried to respond a Bath header from close range beat the ‘keeper but hit the underside of the bar and was eventually cleared allowing the visitors to claim a well-deserved win. Town clearly missed the artistry of Aarron Denny, missing his first game through injury for over six years and the tenacity in midfield of Morgan Williams but it is doubtful if either will be fit for the Willand game.

This Saturday Town travel to Thatcham Town who they beat 3-0 on the opening day of the season. Thatcham lost 2-0 at Tavistock last Saturday but have beaten Shaftesbury 1-0 and perhaps surprisingly Willand Rovers 4-1.

I think the league this season will be far more competitive than last season when Wimborne and Frome were clearly the stand out sides. This time around if sides are having an off day, like Town did last Saturday, then they can expect their opponents to be more than capable of punishing them.