Honiton Town had waited for nine weeks to finally return to action and they will, probably wish the rain had knocked out last Saturday’s Firewatch Devon senior Cup tie at Dartmouth for they were soundly beaten and suffered a first defeat in all competitions this season, writes Steve Birley.

It was certainly not what Town boss Kev Blackwell expected. He said: “Disappointed as a single word to describe what happened does not go near enough! We had a shocker and I can only hope that such a bad perform ace serves as a major wake-up call to one and all otherwise what promised to be a campaign of real glory for then cub could peter out into a damp squib.”

Blackwell could easily have hidden behind a number of genuine reasons as to his sides well under par performance in South Devon.

They did travel minus almost half of their regular first-choice starting eleven owing to a number of different availability issues. They had also endured nearly three months of inactivity owing to all the rain that we have had since mid-December.

Blackwell said: “There can be no excuses. We travelled with a team who I felt would, at the very least, be competitive. Let’s also not lose sight of the fact that when a ‘first choice’ is missing it opens a door to someone to come in and force a manager to rethink his team planning. That meant I travelled really looking to enjoy individual and collective performances. Sadly it was not enjoyable for one minute!”

He continued: “However, it’s testament to the players that this is out first defeat of the season and there’s an old sporting adage that suggests the very best of teams produce an instant response to adversity and now we’ll see just how good my team are when they entertain Dolphin this weekend.”