Honiton Town banked three more points in their march towards Fresha League Division One glory with a narrow 2-1 triumph at East Budleigh.

The Hippos made the short trip without four key players and, perhaps in previous season’s , that might have offered up a pre-kick off excuse for a disappointing afternoon. However, this set of Town players are not of that mould and they went about their business very efficiently.

Incredibly, given the amount of rain that has fallen and the fact that just a week before the pitch in Honiton had been too wet to play on, the East Budleigh surface had clearly seen lots of midweek work done on it to such a degree that it was almost an afternoon for a moulded stud; footwear more suited to former grounds!

The firm surface combined with a cross pitch wind, made conditions difficult for any form of a passing game.

Town edged ahead when Andy Isaac applied a composed finish after great work from Lewis Couch.

Back came the home side and a couple of defensive errors allowed the home attacker to cruise through the back line before smashing the ball home.

Provider became poacher as Couch prodded the ball over the line at the second attempt to Town back in front.

That proved to be the end of the afternoon’s goal scoring, but the home side did create problems for the Hippos and only a superb save at full stretch from goalkeeper Alex McCreadie-Taylor ensured that the points went back to Mountbatten Park.

Town boss Kev Blackwell said: “We had the better chances in a decent contest. Credit must go to them (East Budleigh) for the part they played. Our problem on the day was that we did not take the chances that came our way and, as we climb the football pyramid we are going to need to learn that in each game clinical finishing is going to be so important. That said it’s three more points and another game chalked off as we seek to make our way up another level of the game.”

This weekend sees Blackwell and his men play a double header with Saturday’s swift return with East Budleigh for Fresha League points followed 24 hours later by a Seaton Challenge Cup match against Premier side Beer Albion.