LYME REGIS 0

NEWTOWN 0

LYME Regis managed to pick up a point and stall Newtown’s title charge in a 0-0 stalemate in the Macron Devon & Exeter Premier Division.

It was a game of limited chances, and the first half did not see a clear opportunity for either side to claim the lead.

Both defences were on top and both teams were frustrated in their attempts to claim a breakthrough.

The second half saw two good chances from Ben Turner, one being a cross and the Newtown goalkeeper tried to get the ball, which fell to Turner who put it over when stretching after 60 minutes, before Turner missed another effort on the stretch.

Newtown came close to a winning goal when Lyme goalkeeper Will Meech made a save, but the ball fell to a Newtown player which required Chris Herbst to clear off the line.

Kingsley Wellman, the stand out performer for Lyme, then made a last ditch block on the line to deny Newtown despite them having an open goal to fire into, after Meech was down following an initial save.

It proved a successful experiment, where Lyme played a 4-1-3-2 as opposed to the usual 4-3-3 formation.

Lyme boss Gerard Hitchcock hailed his side’s performance against a high-flying team.

Hitchcock said: “It was a good performance on our part, given that they are still in there to try and win the title.

“They were very disappointed obviously, because they were hoping to claim all three points, but we set our stall out and played particularly well.”

Hitchcock agreed that it was a point gained, again highlighting Newtown’s league position.

Hitchcock said: “Yeah for us definitely, anything against those top teams is a point gained. To be honest a draw was a fair result, we had just as many chances as them. We could have nicked a couple and they could have nicked a couple so it was very even.

“They knew that had been in a good battle.”

Lyme Regis: Meech, C Fowler, Wellman, Knight, Herbst, Bailey, Turner, Fellingham, C Larcombe (Rodriguez 75), Bowditch, Warmsley (D Holmes 70).