Consecutive home victories for Ivybridge Town

DESPITE a series of early-season injury problems, Ivybridge Town made it two wins out of two at the start of their home programme in the Jewson Western League with a 3-1 victory over Wellington AFC at Erme Valley on Saturday (August 1), writes Graham Hambly.

Club captain James Forrest has missed the opening games along with key squad members Ryan Geach and Dan Tate.

Saturday’s game brought further blows with young midfielder Jack Rider and attacker Chris Harvey both suffering injuries.

Rider went off during first half stoppage time because of a calf strain while Harvey injured his ankle after 60 minutes. Ivybridge joint manager Ben Washam admitted: “The physio is going to be busy this week.”

Fortunately, Ivybridge had already taken a deserved 2-0 lead before being forced into making any changes.

Central defender Nick Salop scored his second goal in successive games after 21 minutes when he applied the finishing touch at close range following a right-wing corner. Then Colin Pritchard opened his account for the season in the 32nd minute with a fine shot to round off a well worked move.

Wellington reduced their arrears through Connor Pengelly in the 79th minute, but Ivybridge kept their nerve and secured their victory in the fourth minute of stoppage time when substitute Owen Howard, who had replaced Rider, rounded off good work by impressive striker Josh Johnson.

Washam explained that the midweek win over Brixham had taken a lot out of his players, saying: “You could see that in the second half today. I thought our ball retention was not up to the standard we expect.”

First team coach Mitch Laughton underlined that it had been a difficult opening three fixtures for Ivybridge with matches against Portishead Town and Brixham AFC, who were playing in the Southern League last season, before facing Wellington.

Laughton added: “We have people injured at the moment and the squad has to adjust to that. I don’t think anyone would have anticipated we would get any points from those first three games. To get six points with the injuries we have is a credit to our boys and how hard they work for one another.”

The latest news on Forrest is that he is visiting the physiotherapist this week and Washam says: “He is hoping to get back in a couple of weeks.”

Meanwhile, Ivybridge continue a hectic sequence of home fixtures with two attractive local derbies in the coming week.

They host Saltash United in a league match at Erme Valley on Tuesday evening (Aug 4) (7.30). That will be followed by an FA Cup tie against Torpoint Athletic on Saturday (Aug 8).

Ivybridge then complete a run of five successive home games with an FA Vase game at home to Teignmouth AFC on Saturday August 15.

Elsewhere in the Western League this weekend, there were headline victories for Buckland Athletic, Saltash United and Clevedon Town.

Buckland welcomed Torpoint Athletic to The VX3 Stadium and got their first win of the campaign, despite falling behind.

Meanwhile, Saltash felled title favourites Portishead Town at Kimberley Stadium to extend their strong start and Clevedon made it nine points from nine available by beating Tavistock AFC at Langsford Park.

Alongside Clevedon on maximum points at the time of writing are Shepton Mallet, who dispatched Sidmouth Town by two goals to nil.