Liverton boss Fleet says young team are ‘slowly getting there’

CARLSBERG PENINSULA LEAGUE

Liverton United have scored seven goals and conceded 45 in just eight Division One East games this season, but manager John Fleet remains determined as ever to turn the club’s ailing fortunes around.

The Lillys are still looking for their first points of the season after Fleet watched his young side go down to a 9-1 defeat at Stoke Gabriel on Saturday.

Fleet has been struggling for players and arrived at the Memorial Ground with the bare 11 and no substitutes.

It’s already looking like it will be a long, hard season for Liverton, who finished bottom of the table last season.

They were only spared relegation due to Totnes & Dartington’s and Galmpton & Roselands’ resignation from the league.

But this time around they are facing a fight to preserve their South West Peninsula League status.

But Fleet, who took over as manager during the summer, said: “The results might not show it, but slowly we are getting there.

“We had a half decent pre-season, and had a couple of close games at the start of the season, losing to Teignmouth in injury time in our first game then 3-1 in our next game (against Newton Abbot Spurs) when we were 1-0 up.

“But then we’ve had a couple of injuries and one or two unavailable and it’s just snowballed from there.

“A few players have left, we’ve been left with a young team and it’s affected confidence. We could do with one or two older players to help them along. We’ve been on the end of some heavy defeats, but some teams haven’t been that much better than us. We’ve had spells where we’ve conceded three or four goals really quickly and you can’t come back from that.

“But what I like is the players are never giving up. We lost 9-1 on Saturday, and we were 7-0 down at half-time. It would have been easy for their heads to go down but in the second half we only lost 2-1 and they deserve a lot of credit for that.

“It’s hard to compete when

Stoke Gabriel won 9-1 against bottom-of-the-table Liverton on Saturday the top clubs have all the money to bring players in. When you’re losing games it’s hard to sell the club to players.

“But we will get there, and when that first wins comes hopefully we can get going.”

Liam Moseley scored a hat-trick for Stoke, with Nathan Hebbes, Dave Worthington, Danny Gaze, Dean Stevens and Adam Dyson (two) completing the rout.

The only highlight of the afternoon for Liverton was Leon Newham’s 62nd minute goal.

Teignmouth claimed only their second league win of the season as they eased to a 3-0 win at home to struggling University of Exeter.

Scott Baxter opened the scoring when he headed home brother Jack’s corner with 20 minutes played.

Jack Baxter then got his name on the scoresheet with an hour on the clock after a fine individual run.

And Hayden Rowe’s looping header completed the scoring in the 70th minute.

Waldon Athletic were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Alphington at the weekend.

The hosts took a 28th minute lead through Josh Mason, but Alphington hit back to earn a share of the points through Bailey Jason-Ryan ten minutes before half-time.

Brixham AFC suffered their third defeat of the season as they were beaten 3-2 at Appledore.

After a goalless first half Nick Glover broke the deadlock in the 55th minute.

Brixham drew level through a Liam McAuley penalty, but after Glover was brought down in the box Ben Whitecross scored from the penalty spot to restore Appledore’s lead.

McAuley then scored his second goal to equalise following error from Appledore goalkeeper Aaron Screech.

But they were denied a point when Elliott Whitecross hit the winner five minutes from time.