Exmouth Town picked up a hard fought three points on the road in the Devon derby against Willand Rovers, in the Southern League Division One South.

Goals from Sam Morcom and Matt Wright put Town ahead, with Willand halving the deficit through Ben MacIver-Redwood.

Willand Rovers started on top but it was Town who took the lead early, thanks to Morcom’s stunning free kick found the top corner of the net after seven minutes.

This setback didn’t deter the hosts who continued their strong start and even had the ball in the back of the net after 15 minutes.

This was disallowed however, as the referee blew up for a foul on Aaron Dearing after there was some contact on the Town number one.

Town eventually grew into the first half. This was mostly thanks to the constant threat of Ben Steer on the counter attack, who earned a well deserved assist when his in-swinging cross caused chaos in the Willand box.

Wright prodded home after his presence was enough to force a mistake from young Ashby-Hammond between the Willand posts.

The hosts started the second half on top much like the first. Aaron Dearing was forced to produce a number of smart saves, the best of which came in the 79th minute at point blank range to prevent the hosts from halving the deficit.

Rovers eventually got one back right at the start of injury time.

Maciever-Redwood headed home into an open net thanks to a defensive mix-up at the back involving Dearing, to make it a nervy last 5 minutes for Exmouth who stood tall to secure back-to-back wins in the league.

Exmouth will look to make it three wins in a row when they take on Bashley next Saturday, at the Complete Infrastructure Stadium.

Line-up: Dearing, Morcom, Landricombe, Shore, Edwards, Knowles, Belsten, Denny, Griffith (64’), Steer (73’), Wright.

Subs: Shipton (26’) Cunningham (17’), Bath (1’), Slater, Hill.

Match Report by Lee Smith