SDFL division four

Babbacombe 1,

Dittisham United 3

The Mighty Plums traveled to Torquay on a beautiful spring afternoon, hoping to get back to winning ways after the previous weekend's poor performance and draw against struggling Paignton Villa.

The game did not appear to be going to plan, however. With just five minutes on the clock the Greens failed to defend a corner properly, the ball dropped on the edge of the box and the Bab­bacombe midfielder rifled the ball into the net, giving Ross Williams between the sticks absolutely no chance.

Babbacombe ap­peared to want to defend the lead and packed the midfield in a bid to stop the Greens sharp and intricate passing in between the lines.

It took until after half time for their resolve to be broken.

Influential midfielder and man-of-the-match Marcus Copeman broke from deep and found his first effort blocked. Luckily for the Greens, he was on hand to cleverly loop the ball over the 'keeper's head and into the net on the rebound.

The Plums continued to penetrate the Cor­ries' defence but to no avail, until with 10 minutes to go a Jake Blamey corner was not dealt with and player manager Hank Bastin was available to acrobatically finish from close range.

Now Babbacombe had to come out and attack and threw bodies forward in an attempt to salvage a point.

Wave after wave of attacks came but they were all defended su­perbly by a tightly packed Plums unit.

With barely seconds remaining, the ball fell to Joe Kirby midway inside his own half and he used his last remaining energy to run 60 yards, beating five players in the process, before seeing his strike rebound off the post.

Luckily it fell to Si­mon Passmore, who had the simple task of slotting the ball home.

Special mention to 52-year-old Paul Row­den who started and played a huge part thought the 90 minutes.

Next up for Ditts is an away trip to Newton 66 reserves.