Honiton Town made it nine without defeat thanks to a 1-1 draw at Sidmouth Town.

The Vikings were the last team to defeat Town, beating them 4-2 when the pair met at Honiton on October 1.

Town boss Gary Osbourne was forced to go into the game without midfield duo Dan Broom and Jake Netherway and front two Tim Gender and Sam Farmer, the quartet all out injured.

That meant a re-shuffle with a couple of 17-year-olds, Steve Trenchard and Daryl Davidson, called up from the Reserves to fill the full back berths.

A third 17-year-0ld, Kieran Conway, played the final twenty minutes and he too did very well in the senior side.

Trailing 1-0 at half-time having not played any where near their full potential in the first 45 minutes, Osborne urged his team not to concede their long eight match unbeaten run in such sloppy circumstances.

After the break his players responded to his promptings and deservedly levelled through Mark Bowles following a delightful fence-splitting pass from Darren Witt.

Thereafter the game could have gone either way before ending with honours even.

Osbourne said: “The boys did ever so well and that is certainly a point gained. I said to them at half-time that they had come so far as a team this season and did they really want to let slip their hard earned unbeaten run with what, until then, had been a below-par effort. I felt we were a tad nervous in the first half. After the break we pressed the ball better and looked to get behind them (Sidmouth) at every opportunity. It was a superb collective effort in the second half. It’s now nine unbeaten with a hard game next to try and take the run into double figures.”

The star man for Town was Paul Blackmore who led the line superbly for the full 90 minutes and his experience was clearly invaluable in what was a youthful Town side on the day.

For that game at Colyton on Saturday Town should, have both striker Gender and midfielder Broom back in the fold.