Back with a soggy bang!

Taunton looked set to start the second half of the season how they ended the first however the weather almost washed those hopes away.

Lining up against an Okehampton side that had shown improvement throughout the first half of the season was a reasonably strong Taunton side most notable for the absences of Mark Sawyer and James Coles who allegedly had some more important things to do on the side of some snow covered mountains somewhere. The game started as the rain commenced with areas standing water appearing on the pitch throughout the first half.

In the early exchanges both sides enjoyed periods of possession however it was Taunton that broke the deadlock scoring through Ben Witt after some slick passing. Okehampton were not showing signs of giving up and leveld the score up 10 minutes later. Okehampton continued to show signs that they could threaten the Taunton defence however Simon Jones was able to put the home side back in front after a well worked short corner. However as the rain continued to fall again Okehampton persevered and were duly rewarded with a second equaliser ensuring that the team went in at half time level.

The rain had continued to fall steadily and heavily throughout the first half with almost three quarters of the pitch covered by standing water. The umpires spoke to both teams informing them that should the rain continue then the score would stand after a further 15 minutes play. It just so happened that Taunton took the lead shortly after the 10 minute mark of the second half and not wanting to seem biased the umpires elected to let the teams continue for the duration. Passing proved extremely difficult with the ball holding up well short of intended target in most cases. Taunton elected to try and keep the ball on the end of the stick were able to add two further goals to finish the game as 5-2 victors.

Final goal scorers were Ben Witt (2), Simon Jones (1) , Andy Carter (1) and Lee Slade (1). Man of the match went to Jesse Mooney who also collected the DOD award for having to clarify at the end of the game why he was given a green card for lifting his stick above head height.

Although the weather did not improve during the afternoon the results did as it was confirmed that second place East Devon had lost to third place North Devon therefore allowing Taunton CS to extend their lead at the top of the table to 6 points.