A GOAL from substitute Kaycee Ogwu was not enough to save Ivybridge Town from a 3-1 away defeat by Barnstaple Town in the Jewson Western League at windswept Mill Road on Saturday (Oct 4).

Barnstaple took an early lead when a wind-assisted shot by Gabby Rogers opened the scoring in the seventh minute.

Ivybridge then suffered a couple of injury blows with Nathan Lang and Kai Burrell going off to be replaced by substitutes Jake Smelt and Ogwu.

Despite the disruption to their line-up, Ivybridge equalised with Ogwu scoring his fourth goal of the season in the 30th minute.

Three minutes later, however, Barnstaple restored their lead with a second goal from Rogers, who scored with a close-range header.

It remained 2-1 at the interval, but Barnstaple wrapped up their win with a second half goal from Tommy Rogers to complete the double over Ivybridge, having won 2-0 when they visited Erme Valley at the beginning of September.

Ivybridge face another away fixture on Tuesday evening (Oct 7) with a visit to Sidmouth and will be in action at home on Saturday (Oct 11) when Bridgwater will be the visitors to Erme Valley.

That will be the start of a run of five successive home matches for Ivybridge, including the first round of the FA Vase against Totton & Eling on Saturday, October 18.

Then comes the Les Phillips League Cup match against Torpoint on Wednesday October 22 followed by league matches against Bradford Town and Clevedon on Saturday October 25 and Saturday November 1.

Elsewhere, Sidmouth Town continued to stack wins in the Premier Division on Tuesday night, beating Wellington 3-0 to consolidate their spot in the top five. After Zack Williams had put them ahead during the first half, Cholwe Hachipuka then headed home Town’s second, before Craig Veal wrapped things up 20 minutes from time.