Beer Albion 2nd’s suffered their first defeat of the season going down 3-2 away table-toppers Westexe Park Rangers 1st’s in this Devon and Exeter Division 2 encounter writes Richard Honnor.

Conditions were wet and slippery which made for an open, exciting contest. Having gone behind 1-0 and then 2-1, the Fishermen battled bravely to equalise twice in the game but were eventually beaten by a magnificent late strike from midfielder Adam Mitchell who scored all 3 of the home sides goals.
Mitchell opened the scoring on 17 minutes after a through ball found him in the clear and he went round keeper Shaun Denslow to score. But despite missing the guile and experience of Simon Smith in midfield, the Fishermen took the game to the home side with some attacking football particularly down the right where wing-back Jack Prior was prominent.
Beer were rewarded with a deserved equaliser immediately after the break. A sweeping move involving James Hill, Prior and Richard Walker was finished by a fine Chris Long strike from 15 yards.
Westexe responded strongly but the Fishermen dug in with centre back Ashley Driver once again in dominant form well supported by Fraser Beamont. Just as they began to look as if they might get their noses in front, the Fishermen conceded a soft goal when Mitchell latched on to an underhit back pass and coolly rounded Denslow to put Westexe 2-1 in front.
To their credit, Beer pulled back to 2-2 when Long scored his 2nd goal after Walker had wrong-footed the Westexe defence with a dummy to create the chance.
But with the draw looking likely, Westexe clinched the 3 points on 85 minutes when man-of-the-match Mitchell completed his hat-trick with an unstoppable 30-yarder.
Next Saturday Beer 1st’s are away at last season’s DFL runnners-up North Molton whilst at home Beer 2nd’s have an intriguing local derby against Seaton Town 1st’s. Kick-off at the Furzebrake is at 3pm and the match sponsor is Annings Heating & Plumbing Engineers Ltd.
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