IVYBRIDGE Vandals RFC rediscovered their winning touch in Devon One with a breathless 52-51 win at Withycombe.

Back-to-back defeats by Honiton and Old Plymothians appear to have consigned second-bottom Ivybridge to relegation. If two teams are relegated from Devon One, and it is not an exact science, they will be one of them.

Whatever the future holds for Ivybridge after this Saturday’s closing game against Topsham 2nd XV, winning such a close game was a boost for the troops.

Head coach Steve Atkinson, who accompanied the side to Raleigh Park in the absence of a first-team game, said it was fast-and-furious stuff from first whistle to last.

“Both sides ran with the ball and tried to score as many points as they could,” said Atkinson.

“It could have gone either way but I think our fitness was slightly better than theirs. With about 10 minutes to go I did think we might nick it.”

Atkinson said despite moans and groans from the home contingent it was a good game won the hard way.

“There were a few chirps of ‘we’re playing against a first team’ but it is what it is,” said Atkinson.

“We could have not gone up there and given them the game, then they’d have lost out on bar revenue, but we thought that wouldn’t be fair.

“We could have loaded the team, but I didn’t want to do that, so we just covered the couple of positions we needed and kept predominately to our normal second-team lads.”

Ivybridge try scorers were Ben Winters, Aaron Joynt, Adam Lilley, Ed Lewis, Sid Bear and James Cantin. Matt Grieveson knocked over all seven conversions and a penalty.