Seaton Town made a miserable start to a new Fresha, Devon and Exeter league season when they were thumped 5-1 at top flight new-boys Barnstaple Town.

Ben Ede struck a late consolation for well beaten Town.

Boss Josh Stunell said: “They played much better than us on the day and it was something of a wake-up call for many of my side. It did not come as a surprise to me the quality they had in their side as I know many of them from the County Under-16s and they do have some very talented players – as we do. In many ways they (Barnstaple), remind me a lot of us in the early part of last season. Then we were a young side looking to be a breath of fresh air in the Premier Division. That said, as good as they looked, we did not help ourselves by producing an all-round under-par performance.”

The Town boss continued: “We were so close last season and I don’t want that to become a mill-stone round our neck because we have a good squad again and are more than capable of competing for the top honour but we’ll have to accept that we are going to have bad days and it’s how we respond to such adversity that will make, or break, our season.”

On Saturday Town entertain Hatherleigh at Colyford Road and Stunell is expecting another tough game: “We are going to be without a number of players for the first couple of weeks owing to holidays and other commitments so I don’t expect things to bed down until the second or third week of September. What’s important is that we ensure we don’t allow too big a gap to open between ourselves and the early fliers.”

Seaton Town 2nds 0 V Newton St Cyres 5

The reserves made a very nervous start to the 2011-12 league campaign and struggled to keep on terms with a very useful Newton St Cyres, writes Mark Watkins.

All over the park players were rushing into tackles and committing needless fouls which resulted in even more pressure on the defence. Newton were three goals to the good at half time and although Sam Jones ran himself into the ground upfront for the cause, we failed to trouble the away keeper. As the goals were conceded we lost our shape and failed to string any passes together. This was disappointing as this had been a real strength during the pre-season matches.

Seaton started far brighter in the second period and Jones and Alex Rowe combined well on 55 minutes and were very unlucky not pull a goal back as Rowe’s goal bound shot was headed clear by the last defender on the goal line. As the half went on the Reserves started to display a growing maturity and were more effective as a unit. With only 5 minutes to go Newton added a fourth and then in stoppage time a fifth as Seaton were caught out pushing forward.

We didn’t deserve to get anything out of this game based on the overall performance. It is not all doom and gloom though with 7 of the 14 man squad aged 16 the future is extremely bright. Promotion is the target this season but it will obviously take time for the youngsters to find their feet in men’s football and it will be a case of balancing the youth with several experienced players to ensure we progress as a cohesive unit.