Exmouth Town went into their match at Helston Athletic knowing a win was crucial to keep their hopes alive of playing Southern League football next season.
Tavistock, with wins on Tuesday and Friday evening, had open up an eight-point gap and Mousehole were expected to beat a Bitton side, which they duly did 2-1, and move four points clear of Town having drawn at Helston last Wednesday.
Having withstood early Helston pressure, Town opened the scoring on 20 minutes. Latching on to an Aarron Denny through ball, Levi Landricombe finished in style, burying the ball in the bottom corner past ex- Town ‘keeper Mike Searle.
Eight minutes later Denny won the ball in midfield, drove forward before another precision pass released Ben Steer to race clear and finish emphatically.
The second half continued in a similar vein with Town content to soak up the pressure and hit on the break. Town are a well-drilled unit and that was put to the test when they had not one but two players in the sin bin, Dave Rowe quickly followed by Denny, leaving them with just nine players on the pitch.
They successfully overcame that period with the crossbar once coming to their rescue but were undone in the 82nd minute, when their hosts were awarded a penalty following ‘a tumble’. Despite Robbie Powell getting hands to the ball, the shot was too powerful, and to add to the problems, Nathan Cooper was also sin binned leaving Town to play out the remainder of the match with ten men.
Town held on and had the clearest opportunity to score with Jordan Harris hitting the crossbar with the last kick of the match. Town had truly earned their three points the hard way to leave them in third place, five points behind Tavistock and a point behind Mousehole with all three clubs having five games to play.
With the forty plus Town followers cheering their side off the pitch, there was just one final moment for the referee to take centre stage, when he showed Denny a red card for an off the cuff comment.
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