LYME REGIS 1

ALPHINGTON RES 2

LYME Regis crashed out of the East Devon Senior Cup first round in a 2-1 defeat at home to Alphington Reserves that manager Gerard Hitchcock described as ‘awful’.

Lyme were missing Cody Bowditch, Fred Parsons and Ben Vine for the match but all three could return on Saturday for the trip to Witheridge Seconds.

Lyme started the match slowly but gradually got a foot in the match.

It was an even game during the first half, with Lyme able to hold off their opponents while finding some success with set plays.

It was from one of those that the first goal came, when a corner was swung in and Ruben Rogel, in his last appearance for the Seasiders, had the ball cannon into his chest and into the Alphington net after 20 minutes.

Lyme hit the post three times in the first half as they looked to extend their lead.

Lyme went into half-time with their lead but the second half would see them unravel.

After 50 minutes, Alphington got the breakthrough when a counter saw a strike in from the right-hand side of the box.

Lyme fell behind in comical circumstances after 60 minutes. A corner was swung in and cleared away but it was headed back into the Lyme box.

From here the corner taker went into the box, went to knock the ball forward but the ball hit an Alphington player in the face who out of frustration lashed out at the ball which flew into the net.

Lyme Regis manager Gerard Hitchcock, said: “We were awful. We just never got started, we were rubbish.

"It was comfortably a very poor display to be honest. They were just far hungrier and (had) a bit more desire in their game than we had.

"I could not really put my finger on exactly why but we just did not get started.

“There were far more bad performances than good performances.”

Lyme: Meech, Rowe (Edwards 75), Wellman, Knight, White, Bailey, Fellingham, Turner, Simier, Bearpark (Rodriguez 65), Rogel