EXMOUTH TOWN 4

Harris (2), Dovell og, Dyer og

BRIDPORT 1

Cornish

NEW-LOOK Bridport were thrashed 4-1 by promoted side Exmouth Town as the Bees’ Toolstation Western League Premier Division campaign got off to a poor start.

It took just 58 seconds for Town to break the deadlock as Jordan Harris capitalised on a defensive mix-up to fire past Scott Wells-Burr in the away goal.

To their credit, Bridport settled and exhibited a flowing passing game, which led to the equaliser before the 20-minute mark.

Good work from Robinson Okumu saw the former Wimborne man deliver a low cross to Dec Cornish who controlled and turned before lashing home.

However, another defensive error, which saw two Bees’ players contest an aerial duel, resulted in a perfect, yet inadvertent, knock down for Harris to smash a second 10 minutes before the break.

After half-time, two own-goals prevented Bridport from establishing a foothold in the game.

The first came from Ryan Dovell before on-loan Honiton centre-back Elliott Dyer diverted the ball past Wells-Burr to complete the Bees’ misery.

Manager Rich Robson felt Bridport’s back line required improvement after four errors led to goals.

He said: “We felt it was a game for the taking – that’s the biggest disappointment. There were little bits of individual quality that were missing and it really cost us the game.

“It’s something we need to work on. I know it’s a new group, but the only way to do that is hard work and to keep training more and more.

“We’re going to focus on that and try and bolster our back line. It’s not panic stations yet because it was one of those games where if we’d scored after the break it might’ve been a very different game.”

Bridport next visit Bitton in the FA Cup Extra-Preliminary Round on Saturday (3pm).

Bees: Wells-Burr, Coombs, Richardson, Dyer, Phillips, Dovell, Gape (Handyside 80), Thompson, Hewitt (White 75), Okumu (Leader 65), Cornish. Sub not used: Kershaw