LYME REGIS 3

SANDFORD 1

LYME Regis continued their pursuit of leaders Alphington with a 3-1 victory over Sandford in the Devon & Exeter League Premier Division at Davey Fort.

Julien Simier’s men were far from their best in this contest but had enough guile and quality to beat Sandford, who remain tenth of the 13 teams.

Brad Rowe maintained his excellent scoring form by giving Lyme the lead after a slaloming run from Josh Rawlins.

Sandford had an effort cleared off the line and were soon 2-0 down when Rowe swept home a cross from wide on the left.

READ MORE: Upwey & Broadwey 1-1 Lyme Regis (Lyme win 5-4 on pens) - match report

Victory was put firmly out of Sandford’s reach when Steve Batey scored a header to make it 3-0 in the second half.

To their credit, Sandford did plug away and got a consolation through Dean Pidgeon.

His effort made for a slightly uncomfortable finale for Lyme, who escaped further damage when Aidan Smith struck the bar.

However, Lyme locked up the three points to close to eight points the gap on Alphington with the table-toppers not playing.

The two sides meet in a mouthwatering East Devon Senior Cup tie at the Chronicles on Saturday (2pm).

Lyme: Higgs, Bailey, S Batey, Beer, Fellingham, R Fowler, G Knight, Pollard-Jones, Rawlins, A Rowe, B Rowe. Subs: Daines, M Knight, Thompson.