LYME REGIS 8

SIDMOUTH TOWN SECONDS 2

LYME Regis hammered rivals Sidmouth Town Seconds 8-2 in a 10-goal Macron Devon & Exeter League Premier Division thriller at Davey Fort.

The magnitude of this result was large both in meaning and scoreline with Gerard Hitchcock’s men having lost both their previous league games against Upottery and Whipton & Pinhoe.

For Sidmouth, this was a chance to exact revenge for a 2-1 defeat to the Seasiders in August and the Vikings received the perfect start in the sixth minute when keeper Brett Garner was unable to keep out a fierce header.

Lyme then won a free-kick 20 yards out and Rob Fellingham stepped up to curl a brilliant effort into the top corner for a 16th-minute equaliser.

But the Vikings were gifted the lead again when Ben Vine’s high boot inside the area was penalised, Sidmouth converting for 2-1.

That setback stunned the Seasiders for a time until the hosts gradually revived themselves enough to level the scores at half-time, Vine’s crossfield pass picking out Brad Rowe on the left to run through and score.

Stern words from Hitchcock at half-time propelled Lyme into the form that had taken them top of the table as the Seasiders blitzed six unanswered goals.

Fellingham had a bout of déjà vu when bending home a symmetrical free-kick to his first for 3-2 and suddenly the floodgates were open.

Striker Joe Bond was then brought down in the box, Fellingham converting for his hat-trick, before Rowe cut back for Bond to get in on the act for 5-2.

Lyme struck their third goal in nine minutes when Vine latched onto a superb through ball from Alex Rocket, applying the finishing touches for 6-2.

With the points secured, Hitchcock switched Rowe for Nathan Womersley and Bond for Sam Pollard-Jones with 25 minutes to play.

A severe goalkeeping error handed Lyme their seventh goal as the Vikings’ gloveman got in a tangle after some daredevil trickery, allowing Ben Turner to make the tackle and score from three yards.

Pollard-Jones was involved for the tenth goal of the afternoon, pulling the ball back for Fellingham to lash sweetly into the net for 8-2 and the midfielder’s fourth goal.

Speaking to the Bridport News, Lyme boss Hitchcock revealed a half-time talking to had worked wonders.

“We had a discussion at half-time, shall we say,” Hitchcock admitted. “It was a complete turnaround for the second half and we totally dominated it.

“It was a pleasing second half, first-half we only played for about 15 minutes – the first half an hour we were pretty poor making stupid mistakes.

“Then we came in at 2-2 and the second half we very much dominated the play – it was all one-way traffic.”

Lyme’s attention now turns to a league clash, and a chance for revenge, against Whipton & Pinhoe at the Exeter Arena on Saturday (3pm).

“That’ll be the plan,” Hitchcock said. “Hopefully now we’ve got a bit of confidence from doing what we’ve just done and we can put things right.

“We just didn’t play very well (against Whipton). It’s a game we should have a bit of confidence for and we can go from there.”

Mark Bailey (hamstring) misses out, while Pollard-Jones is unavailable.

Lyme: Garner, Bowditch (Bailey 75), Rocket, Wellman, Every, Fellingham, Turner, Parsons, Vine, Rowe (Womersley 65), Bond (Pollard-Jones 65).