NEWTOWN 4

LYME REGIS 2

LYME REGIS fell to an unfortunate 4-2 defeat against Newton in the East Devon Senior Cup quarter-final.

The visitors were hit with a selection dilemma as they were forced to replace a number of ineligible senior players with reserve team players, who handled the occasion well.

Lyme started strongly, creating a number of opportunities in the first 10 minutes before Newtown took the lead.

The visitors then scored two to take the lead through Sam Day and Sam Jones, before Newtown equalised again on the stroke of half-time.

Both sides had opportunities to score but it was the hosts who took the lead with two second-half goals to put them in front and see them progress to the semi-finals of the cup.

The visitors did have a goal disallowed late on, but manager Robin Townsend was happy with his side’s performance despite the defeat.

He said: “We were brilliant. I know we lost but I can take more positives than negatives out of the game, and in the last few weeks we’ve been excellent.

“The scoreline didn’t reflect the game. I think a draw would have been a fairer result, but again, we’ve just been inconsistent.

“I can’t blame the referee, we were just unfortunate and, had we taken our chances earlier in the game, it probably would have been a different result.”

Townsend was also keen to praise the Reserves who took part.

He said: “They coped fantastically.

“They have a few more games to go this season but the lads who stepped in did brilliantly.

“The reserves are in a cup final and have a chance to get promoted, so we’ll just see who we have available this week, and then the reserves can have the pick of the players to try and get out of the league they’re in.

“Next week is our last game of the season, but everything looks really good for next year, and I think our team will do alright.”