On a dreadful and wet night a hardcore set of supporters turned out to watch North Molton SC host title challenging University of Exeter in the A&S Interiors Devon Football League. The visitors came into this match knowing that Alphington had dropped points a day earlier and that three points would take them top of the league. For the hosts they knew they couldn’t mathematically finish bottom of the table and would be looking to pick up as many points as possible from their last few games to climb a few places in the final standings.

The first half lacked in any real quality chances for both sides and the conditions showed with both teams unable to find the killer pass to break past the defence. North Molton picked up a handful of yellow cards for not taking the wet surface into consideration when tackling with a few strong tackles flying in.

It was the hosts who had the best chance to break the deadlock early on with less than ten minutes on the clock when an angled shot from Jack Moses was saved by the University shot stopper Ben Roberts rebounding directly into the path of Adam Jerrett who’s rebounded effort was gathered on the second attempt by Roberts.

A few moments after almost going behind the visitors were gifted with a chance to open the scoring themselves as a clearance from home keeper Jake Greening only went as far as Sam Wade who shot towards the open goal but his effort went well wide of the target.

The opening goal of the game came at the midway point of the first half as Greening had a bit of a howler as he tried to claim a lose ball but Matt Steer had other ideas as he pounced on the ball and tapped in from just a couple of yards out.

The Students took the lead into the half time interval and both teams knew what was required in the second half.

Whilst North Molton would’ve been reasonably happy to only be behind by one goal at the break against a team pushing for the title it was one way traffic in the second half with the visitors comfortably on top.

With the second half barely a couple of minutes old the Students almost doubled the lead as a ball from the right wing found Adam Macpherson who threw himself at the ball but could only put the effort wide of the target. The away side were then gifted another golden chance moments later as an attempted clearance by Michael Hatcher hit Macpherson with the ball going towards the goal, Greening got down well to save the ball and managed to hold on to it as well.

Scorer of the only goal that separated the sides, Matt Steer, was once again involved in the action as he headed goalwards from a long throw but could only watch as Greening was at full stretch to tip the effort over the bar.

With all the chances coming their way it wasn’t long before University managed to double their lead as a ball from the left wing was cut back to Steet who shot towards the target as team mate Jake Faul flicked the ball in to the net to ensure the ball went over the line.

The evening went from bad to worse for North Molton as they were reduced to ten men as Sam Phillips disagreed with the linesman over the decision of a throw in. This led to abusive comments made towards the assistant with the referee dismissing Phillips for dissent.

The students made the man advantage count and added a third goal before the end of the game as substitute Paul Hunold sent a left footed effort towards the bottom corner from the edge of the box which was pushed around the post by Greening. From the resulting corner Hunold had a free header making no mistake in finding the back of the net this time.

With Alphington having dropped points on Monday, University now sit two points clear at the top of the table knowing that a win in Saturday’s crunch match between the top two will secure the title.

North Molton SC team: Jake Robert Greening, Jack Moses, Michael Hatcher, George Folland, Cory Roach, Harley Ashdown, Joshua Stoneman, Sam Phillips, Ciaron Lishman, Joe Southcott, Adam Jerrett

Subs: Matthew Jones, Daniel Anjos, Will Pancherz, James Giffard, Stephen Filsell

University of Exeter team: Ben Roberts, Sam Thomas, Joe Zamir, Jack Smith, James Wakefield, Ben Harris, Sam Wade, Ollie Kavanagh, Adam Macpherson, Jake Faul, Matt Steer

Subs: Michael Massey, Paul Hunold, Oliver Powell