After a long lay-off Seaton Town 1sts finally kicked off the eagerly awaited new season - with new management duo James Carmichael and Barry Seymour and a very strong squad - made the difficult trip to Chard Town Reserves in the Devon & Exeter Premier East Division on Wednesday night.

Always a difficult place to go, the infamous Chard slope added to the difficulties the team would face.

It was a close contest, lacking in clear-cut opportunities but an industrious, hard-working Seaton looked the more threatening going up the slope.

They finally made the breakthrough 35 minutes into the contest when Josh French steadied himself to finish from 15 yards out to make it 1–0.

Buoyed by their performance, the team saw out the first half in what the management believe will be Seaton's combative trademark fashion and went into the break with confidence high.

In predictable fashion, Chard came out with renewed fight for the second half and as the game started to open up the home team were rewarded for their effort with a chance to level the scores from the spot.

Despite the protests of the Seaton players, the referee awarded the penalty and it was dispatched beyond debutant goalkeeper Andy Moore on 65 minutes.

With Chard starting to gain confidence, the new management team made their first substitution of the match, moving Reece Best-Edwards up front and bringing Lewis Cottam on in mid-field in a bid to hold the ball up further up the pitch and give some respite to a defence superbly marshalled by club captain Charlie Ledger.

With the visitors now moving the ball quicker and with increased purpose, Seaton finally got what their performance deserved when Cottam threaded a ball through the Chard defence for Will Hellier to latch onto, only to be brought down by the advancing keeper in the penalty box.

After the referee had dispensed a yellow card, up stepped Josh French to place the ball to the keeper's left and Seaton were back in front.

With only six minutes remaining, the team saw out the tie in confident style for final scoreline of Chard Town Reserves 1,Seaton Town 1st 2.

A great start can only give the team confidence going into a local derby against a Colyton side playing their first game of the season on Saturday.

Man-of-the- match, voted by players and management went jointly to Josh French and Reece Best Edwards.