Tiverton in good spirits ahead of Devon Derby
TIVERTON Town made a blistering start to their Southern League Premier Division South season when they beat Wimborne Town 5-0 at Ladysmead on Saturday – and they will look to continue that in tonight’s FA Cup first qualifying round Devon Derby against Bideford.
Striker Alex Fletcher celebrated signing for the club on a full-time basis with a brilliant hat-trick with the other two goals coming from Jordan Bastin and Dan Hayfield leaving joint manager Martyn Rogers to say: “You can’t wish for much better than that, to be fair. It was good.”
Next for Tiverton is the visit of Bideford, who Tiverton played twice in pre-season friendlies – but Rogers says: “Those results mean nothing.”
He continued: “What we know is Bideford are a decent side – so we will give them all the respect they are due. But we are a league above – if we play to our potential and they play to their potential, then we should win.”
The game at the Ian Moorcroft Stadium is a 7.45pm kick-off, but one player that will not be involved is striker Levi Landricombe, who ended his association with the club last week by returning to ambitious Western League side Plymouth Parkway.
Landricombe has been a regular goalscorer for Rogers in the last five years or so, but he missed much of last season due to injury. However, Rogers hopes he can get back to full fitness and show what he can do once again, which he has done so far, scoring twice since his return to Bolitho Park.
Rogers acknowledged all that the striker has done for the club – but admits the time was right for him to move on. Also starting on Saturday, after re-signing for this season from Torquay United, was Jared Lewington.
“Once we had signed Fletch, I think Levi thought his gametime was going to be limited – so he decided to go down to Parkway,” said Rogers. “We obviously wanted Levi to stay but he has been used to being number one and he would have been on the bench on Saturday.
“That just goes to show how strong we are, having Levi not starting, because he will still score goals, I am sure of that. He has been absolutely first class and he has been a proper star of the club for four or five years.
“It will take him a while to get back to his best but he is probably threequarters fit and he has still scored two goals already for Parkway. That shows what he can do.”
As for SAturday’s fine win, he added: “Wimborne played really well for the first 20 minutes and it could have been 2-2. After about 35 minutes I was thinking ‘how’s this still nil-nil?’ But then we got the goal and that deflated them a little bit and we kicked on and I thought for the rest of the game we were pretty much in control.”
Tiverton were under pressure a little bit in the first half with Wimborne failing to score from several good chances – but once the home side had got themselves ahead in the 39th minute, there really was only one team in it from then on.
Fletcher scored his first goal with a low header after having a penalty saved by the Wimborne goalkeeper – and two minutes later Bastin made it 2-0 when his free-kick from the right flew through the defence and found the far corner. Fletcher then found the net with a quality strike just before half-time with the team going into the break 3-0 ahead.
There was a fourth goal in the 73rd minute – Hayfield volleying the ball home from close range – with Fletcher’s hat-trick goal, a flick-on from a low cross, coming in the 85th.
Rogers said: “I am obviously delighted with the result and the performance. It was exactly what we wanted from Alex – he is a top striker and he could have had four or five. He was sharp as a tack and typified that when he was so quick to react after his penalty had been saved.”