SWPL EAST Ivybridge Town 1 Teignmouth AFC 0

LEAGUE leaders Ivybridge Town extended their unbeaten run to 10 games with a 1-0 victory at home to Teignmouth in the South West Peninsula League on Saturday.

A close-range strike from Chris Wright in the 35th minute was enough to secure a sixth successive win and extend the Ivys lead at the top of the East Division to nine points.

In-form attacker Wright, who scored a hat-trick in the previous week’s 5-0 win at Torridgeside, picked up a rib injury and went off at half-time to be replaced by substitute Luke Forward.

Despite controlling much of the game, however, Ivybridge were unable to add to their score even though the visitors were reduced to 10 men in the 70th minute.

Ivybridge joint manager Wayne Gamble admitted: “Maybe it was not the quality of game that we thought was going to happen, but we will take the three points and clean sheet.

“There was a lack of quality around the final third although we hit the woodwork a couple of times and had a chance cleared off the line, but we needed to be a bit more clinical.

“Chris Wright was in the right place at the right time again. He is in rich form and got a hat-trick last week away to Torridgeside. He is a fox in the box. His movement is fantastic in and around the box.

“I thought we would push on from that, but when they went down to ten men we got worse ourselves. We did not move the ball quickly enough to the wide areas and did not have the class in the final third.

“Sometimes it only needs one goal and you just grind out the win.”

One of the pleasing features of the afternoon was the performance of Owen Raven in midfield. He earned the man of the match award with Gamble saying: “He was the Owen Raven that I have heard about. He has been in and out of the side but he was fantastic today. For me, his season started today.”

A notable absentee was defender Jordan Powell, who injured himself in training during the week.

Gamble added: “Overall, he has been one of our best players this season. It just shows the depth of the squad that we can bring other people in and we got another clean sheet.”

Next up for Ivybridge is an attractive visit from Torquay United on Tuesday evening (Sept 26) (7.30pm) in the first round of the Devon County St Luke’s Bowl.

Gamble warns that his side will need to show an improvement against their National League opponents.

“We have to massively improve because we were not at our best today,” he says.

“Torquay could do us a little bit of damage if we are not careful so we will have to raise our game. It did not happen for us today. The expectations are so high now and we all expect so much more.

“Torquay will be a tough test. I expect to have a nice crowd here and that will spur our boys on to raise their game.”

Following the cup clash, Ivybridge return to league action on Saturday September 30 with another home fixture against Honiton.

Gamble says: “We have got a nice run of fixtures where we could keep putting points on the board and let everyone keep chasing us. We are top of the table so it is up to them to catch up with us.”

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