Upottery bounced back from their mauling in the Devon Premier Cup – a 9-man villager’s side had gone down 11-0 seven days before at South West Peninsula League Eastern Division Brixham – to inflict a rare Macron League top flight defeat on hosts Okehampton, beating them 4-2.

It was the perfect response for Upottery boss Dan Prettejohn who had dusted off his own boots to help make up the nine hero’s that had gone to Brixham.

He explained saying: “We were in dire straights numbers wise and yours truly turned out, but we had a dozen missing for the cup tie with all manner of reasons for their absence. We still had five out for the trip to Okehampton, but the lads did ever so well there. It really was a strong and disciplined display that fully merited us getting all three points. The only thing that I was disappointed about post match was having to tell the lads that if only they had delivered that sort of collective shift in the recent games with Witheridge and Beer then we really would be sitting pretty in the table.”

Upottery were composed at the back and played a deliberate high line that saw them control proceedings for almost then entire game at Okehampton. However, they did fall behind, though the goal was very much down to a defensive mistake.

Boss Prettejohn let rip from the technical dugout and his players responded in style and, within 10 minutes of falling behind, they led 2-1 thanks to goals from Ryan Vickery and Max McKewan. After the break McKewan got a second and Steve Morris completed the scoring on a most satisfactory afternoon for the club.

Prettejohn said: “The performance, and the result, have give us a huge lift and I am hoping we can now kick on and make our mark in the Premier Division over the remainder of the campaign.”

This Saturday (November 18), Upottery are another high-flying Macron top flight outfit – Exmouth Town Reserves.