Dartmouth 7, Honiton 1 Honiton crashed out of the Firewatch Devon Senior Cup when well beaten by the South Devon League hosts who became the first team to defeat Town in all competitions this season.

It was always feared that, after a nine-week period of inactivity owing to waterlogged pitches, Town might suffer a reaction coming straight back into action in such a high-profile contest, and so it proved as they were soundly beaten.

They were not helped with the unavailability of no fewer than five regular starters.

Town boss Kev Blackwell was not looking for excuses post match when he said: “We have no excuses. Yes, we’ve had a long spell with no games and yes, we were without five players who have been an integral part of the unbeaten season before this particular game. On the day the better team won and the Dartmouth front two were a very potent combination. I was confident before the game that the side we fielded would be, at worst, competitive. Sadly, a number of players that have patiently waited for their opportunity didn’t do themselves justice and take that chance.”

He continued: “It’s all got a little too sloppy for my liking. There needs to be a genuine change in attitude and aptitude with the team. That goes from not turning up late for team departures and not finding things to laugh about in the aftermath of being thumped 7-1. I also want an improvement to what have been poor showings at training. It’s all got a little too casual and it showed in that lack-lustre performance at Dartmouth. We’ll make changes fro the cup team and no one can argue with that because not enough was done on Saturday. I am confident the team will deliver against Dolphin and prove that cup loss was a blip.”

It’s back to Fresha League Division Two action on Saturday and a home game with second-in-the-table Dolphin who sit three points shy of Town having also played a dozen of their 28-day league programme.

Town go into the game having not conceded a home league goal since the one scored by Culm United back on November 9!

Exeter-based Dolphin have seen their last seven games postponed and they have not played since December 21.

Town will not complete the first half of their Fresha season until the March 8 game at Colyton after which they will still have 14 games to play in the campaign and there will be just six Saturday match days left until the start of May which suggests if Town are to see this season to a successful conclusion their players are going to have to be very committed for there’s bound to plenty of midweek and even Sunday football to negotiate.