LYME REGIS 0 COMBE RESERVES 1

NOT even Rob Thom’s heroics could stop Lyme Regis from experiencing an afternoon to forget in their latest outing at Davey Fort.

Missing several key players, the hosts netted an own goal and had Will Meech sent off as their bid to retain the Perry Street Premier Division title suffered a major setback.

Lyme boss Karl Diment said: “We had seven first-teamers out through a combination of injury, illness and unavailability and to be honest it was just a bit of a nightmare really.

“With one of the sweepers missing I decided to start myself and after 15 minutes I scored an own goal.

“Their forward was going through so I came in from the side and got a foot in, only to toe end it over Will, who had come out to the penalty spot.

“It then got even worse five minutes later when our left-back played a back-pass which saw one of their lads nip in and get dragged down by Will.

“By the letter of the law he had to go and at that stage I decided to make a change.

“I was struggling a bit with the flu so I took myself off and brought Rob Thom on and he ended up pulling off a great save to stop the spot-kick.

“It stayed 1-0 up until the break so in the second half we opted to go 3-4-2 in a bid to try and get back in the game.

“We ended up giving it a right good go with Jack Durant hitting the post twice and also being denied what looked like a dead cert penalty, but unfortunately it just wasn’t to be our day.”

The defeat has left Lyme four points adrift of leaders Winsham having played one game more, but Diment has still not given up hope of catching them.

He added: “It’s not over yet. We have certainly made it a lot more difficult but there is no reason why we cannot bounce back from this, starting on Saturday with our Challenge Cup semi-final at home to Ilminster Reserves (2pm).

“I really want us to get in the final of that competition and with the likes of Dan Rudge, Joel Gostling, Will Mowbray and Julien Simier all possibly returning for that, we should be a lot stronger.”