Seasiders lose invincible tag (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

Seasiders lose invincible tag

8:59am Wednesday 2nd May 2012 in Lyme Regis By Adam Summers

ROBIN Townsend will always look back at this season with pride despite seeing his side’s bid to go through an entire league campaign unbeaten, fall at the penultimate hurdle in the Perry Street Premier Division, writes Adam Summers.

Lyme Regis looked odds on to remain invincible in the top-flight until a debatable red card saw Ilminster Town Reserves come back from three goals down to beat the champions 4-3.

Townsend’s men did go on to beat Crewkerne Town 3-0 in their final game of the season with goals from Julian Simier (2) and Joe Bond but it was scant consolation.

The Lyme boss, who will now step down from his role, said: “Losing to Ilminster was very disappointing.

“The weather was atrocious and in the early exchanges Joe went one-on-one with their keeper and was brought down in the box by a retreating defender.

“By the letter of the law the lad should have been sent off but the referee showed some common sense and only booked him.

“Mark Bailey tucked away the spot-kick and then Joe and Jason Hawker both grabbed goals to make it 3-0.

“However, for some reason, we then lost concentration and allowed them to get back to 3-2 before our keeper Will Meech brought down their striker just outside the box.

“Matt Lang was right there on the cover but instead of just dishing out a booking like he had done earlier, the referee sent Will off.

“The resulting free-kick went in with the aid of a deflection and when I tried to ask the ref at half-time why he had shown the red card for one incident and not the other he wouldn’t talk to me, which was extremely frustrating.

“We continued to create chances in the second half but Ilminster went on to sneak another one and at the end the result was hard to take.”

Having also had a man sent off in their recent Dorset Intermediate Cup final defeat against Milborne Sports, Townsend cannot help but think what might have been. However, he is still proud of his team’s achievements.

He added: “It has been a great season and even though the Dorset Intermediate Cup final defeat and the loss against Ilminster have taken a bit of the shine off it recently, what we have achieved this year has been fantastic.

“To go on a 24-game unbeaten run in all competitions and win two cups and the league is an incredible feat and I can only hail what are a great bunch of lads for all their efforts.”