Southern League breathing space for Bideford

A fabulous first half and stubborn second combined neatly for Bideford AFC to secure an important three points in Division One South of the Southern League.

The Robins have struggled for consistency over the first two months of the new campaign but this second victory in the league does open some welcome daylight above the divisional drop zone.

Evesham United, who have been flirting with the play-off positions, were the visitors to a sunny Sports Ground, and they demonstrated understandable confidence in the opening exchanges, forcing Mike Searle into a string of strong saves.

Once Bideford settled, however, they began to look the more potent attacking threat, as proven by the opening goal just before the half-hour. A corner from Josh Webber was cleared by the Evesham defence but fell perfectly for Finn Roberts to execute a superb volley beyond the visiting custodian.

After such a fantastic strike, the Robins were rampant, and extended their advantage just four minutes later, when Roberts hurled a long throw into the danger area and the Evesham clearance was again a little tepid, allowing Jack Winsor to steer a delightful finish into the bottom corner.

Bideford continued that positive momentum into the early minutes of the second period, Alex Moyse and Ryan Turner both forcing good blocks from the Evesham stopper, but the pendulum swung back to the visitors when Levi Steele fizzed a low drive beyond Searle.

With over a quarter of the game still to play, Bideford still had to ask some attacking questions of Evesham, Louie Slough’s downward prompting another decent save, but the challenge became tougher when Winsor was dismissed for a second bookable offence on 88 minutes.

Evesham launched waves of attacks at the Bideford, Steele thumping the post from close range in a massive reprieve for the Robins, who otherwise deserved all three points.

After going down to a rare defeat in their last Western League outing, Barnstaple Town restored that winning feeling with an entertaining 4-2 victory over struggling St Austell.

Barum were given an early shock when the Cornish visitors, who are languishing in the bottom three, opened the scoring, but normal service was quickly restored, Brodie Montague heading home after a long spell of Barnstaple pressure.

A scruffy effort that was registered as an own goal gave Barnstaple the lead at half-time but St Austell got back on level terms soon after the restart.

Once again, however, Barum found another gear, Gabby Rogers making the score 3-2 with an incisive low strike after cutting in from the left flank. Ryan Keates then settled any nerves with a late fourth to move Barnstaple up to second, two points behind Clevedon.

Ilfracombe Town are perhaps glancing over their shoulders at the bottom three after going down to a 5-2 loss at third-placed Shepton Mallet.

The Bluebirds were in the game for long periods, goals from Tom Chastey and substitute Liam Martin making it 3-2 before Shepton pulled away with two late strikes.