WELLINGTON RESERVES 4

LYME REGIS 3

LYME Regis boss Robin Townsend labelled the Seasiders' 4-3 loss at Wellington Reserves in Devon & Exeter Division One as "a sickener".

Townsend's men had been 3-1 up at half-time through a Fred Parsons double and a Brad Rowe strike.

However, the concession of three unanswered goals in the second-half sealed a first league defeat of the season for the league leaders.

Townsend told the Bridport News he was "absolutely gutted" by the result.

He said: "It's a sickener. I'm absolutely gutted. It's still a mystery now.

"Their first team had no game and they had a few first-teamers in, but there's still no excuse not to get something out of the game.

"The disappointing thing is that the players couldn't figure it out either.

"We were pretty devastated to be 3-1 up and lose. The last couple of games it seems we have been waiting to lose. I don't know how it came about."

Despite being displeased with Lyme's first-half showing, Townsend admitted the match assumed the "game of two halves" cliche.

"It was an old game of two halves. To be fair we didn't start off very well.

"It was a bit of a slope and we were going up the hill, but we had three chances and scored all three.

"Brad scored from our first move of the game at the back post.

"Fred then scored from the edge of the box, and we had a goal flagged for offside straight afterwards," he said.

"We gave away a penalty which was never a penalty. It was a clean challenge, the bloke didn't fall over and the ref gave it - that was 2-1.

"But we went and scored up the other end with five minutes left with Fred again," he added.

But Townsend felt that once Wellington pulled a goal back for 3-2, they were the only likely winners despite the Seasiders hitting the woodwork twice late on.

"As soon as they scored they wanted to win it more than we did. They scored midway into the second-half to make it 3-3.

"We made a few changes to deal with it, but they scored to make it 4-3.

"But we've had chances in the last few minutes. We hit the post, bar and had our own penalty claim," he said.

Lyme next face Sidmouth Town Seconds in a derby clash on Saturday (3pm) at Davey Fort and Townsend is aiming to "come back" from the Wellington loss.

He said: "We have got to show the quality I think we have got and we'll come back from it.

"We've got Sidmouth in a local derby and it's not going to be easy. They are a very good side - we know it's going to be tough."

Seasiders: Higgs, Day, D Rowe, Wellman, Daniels (A Rowe 75), Bowditch (Herbst 60), Lock, Fellingham (Bailey 60), Parsons, Ellis, B Rowe