Upottery slipped to a 3-0 defeat at Division Three leaders Dawlish United.

Villagers boss Dan Prettejohn was clear as to why his side had produced a below–par performance. He said: “It was out first game since late November and that’s almost like starting the season again after such along lay-off! The players gave their all, but collectively it wasn’t good enough to get the better of a useful side who play their big wide pitch very well.”

Dawlish have yet to drop a point at their Sandy Lane home this term, and, once they had taken a first half lead, the outcome of this game was never in doubt.

Central defender Stuart Coombes was one of the few exceptions to escape the Upottery Managers displeasure. Prettejohn said: “In terms of a star man it had to be Stuart who stuck to his task very well.”

This weekend Upottery have a double home header with Saturday’s League game against North Tawton followed swiftly by a Bill Slee Cup tie with Broadclyst. Prettejohn has a plan to ensure there’s no repeat of the performance at Dawlish. He said: “We’ll put them through their paces at our midweek training session and try and flush out the last remnants of festive celebrating. Then we can head into the double header weekend looking to bank league points and make cup progress.”