Honiton Town’s first ever outing in the South West Peninsula League ended in defeat as they went down 3-1 in a floodlit game at Crediton United.

The Mid Devon side are an established outfit at this level, but Town went into the game boosted by a good pre-season and one surprise – a terrific one for Town followers – was the inclusion of former Feniton player-boss Ben Ede in the side.

For the first half hour the Hippos gave as good as they got and it was not until 10 minutes before the break that the home side took the lead, one they carried into half-time.

After the break, Town glovesman Rowan Symonds was adjudged to have brought down a home striker. A yellow card was issued and the subsequent penalty drilled home. Soon after it was 3-0 with Town looking set for a tough final third of the contest.

However, Town showed plenty of character all over the pitch and it was no more than they deserve when Ede marked his Hippos debut with the games fourth and final goal.

All three Town subs were used with Tom Perryman first off the bench to replace Andy Isaacs. The second switch was Joe Mulhall for Ryan Pike and the final change was Jack Knight taking over from Aaron Doble.

Town are back in league action on Saturday (August 19) when they travel to South Devon to meet a Liverton side that has one point from their first two games and then next Tuesday (August 2) the Hippos play their first ever Mountbatten Park game at this level with Budleigh Salterton providing the opposition for an East Devon derby that kicks-off at 6.30pm.

The Town team for their first ever game at this level was: Rowan Symonds, Joe Dixon, Blake Freemantle, Martyn Hancock, Ben Ashford, Andy Isaac, Ben Ede, Ryan Pike, Aaron Doble, Lewis Couch and Chris Long. Subs: Tom Perryman, Joe Mulhall and Jack Knight (all used).