DEFEAT to Sidmouth Town last weekend was the second in a row on home soil for Ivybridge Town with a disruptive pre-season schedule potentially coming back to bite them.

Joint-manager Brad Gargett believes one of the possible reasons for this slow start at Erme Valley is the summer work that prevented them from playing any games there.

Speaking to Graham Hambly after the Sidmouth loss, he said: “We are playing at home, but it is not like our own pitch.

“We have got so many new players, who have not played pre-season on this pitch. We are looking for combinations and the right way to play the pitch which will come five or six games in, but at the moment it is a bit like playing away.

“You want to make your home pitch your fortress so not being able to play at home pre-season was a bit of a disadvantage.”

Louis Spaulding, who netted eight times in Sidmouth’s Peninsula League title-winning campaign last year, scored twice in this 3-0 win at the expense of the Ivies.

It isn’t exactly a doom and gloom situation for Gargett and his partner in crime Ben Washam though as their side have won two of the three away games in the league to date.

Moreover, who better to face next than 19th-placed Nailsea & Tickenham, who are having a torrid time of it thus far.

With one draw and five defeats to their name, the Somerset side are really struggling and so Ivybridge will be keen to compound their misery at Fryth Way tomorrow.

Another club looking to bounce back from defeat is Stoke Gabriel & Torbay Police, whose recent midweek performance left joint manager Matt Hayden “really hurting”.

Having seen Bovey Tracey AFC completely dominate Newton Abbot Spurs the week prior, those of a Stoke persuasion will have felt confident ahead of their own visit to The Rec but it wasn’t to be.

Full-back Tyler Joint struck twice to put Spurs ahead and although a scramble from a corner, attributed to Sean Adderley, halved the deficit, Stoke were unable to find a late equaliser.

Jordan McCarthy’s downward header was saved in remarkable fashion by Spurs shot-stopper Kane Gregory (formerly of Ivybridge ironically enough) at the death but despite coming that close to a point, Hayden accepted that their opponents “deserved the win from start to finish”.

He added, “They fought more than us and they wanted it more than us from the start which is disappointing for me to say because up until this point, we have been that side so to turn up today and not to be that side, it hurts.”

Perhaps a defeat of that manner will reignite the fire that Stoke had displayed in previous matches, after all, they flew out of the blocks with seven points from an available nine and a five-star cup victory.

They have a great set-up at Broadley Lane currently with Spurs boss Connor Marshall commenting that “they’re a very talented and determined group”.

One defeat is nowhere near enough to suddenly knock them out of title contention and a win away at Torridgeside AFC tomorrow, in response, would come as no surprise.

The pair are both on seven points although Stoke already have a nine-better goal difference and they’ve also played one less game to date.

Torridgeside have kept it very tight with only one of their six outings being won by more than one goal. Conversely, the Bees hit Cullompton Rangers for six, put four past Crediton United and reached five against St Day AFC.

It promises to be an intriguing encounter whichever way it goes.