THERE was much conjecture about the comings and goings at Ottery St Mary before Lyme Regis 1st team's home fixture with the bottom club in the Devon and Exeter Premier division.

With a new manager, Rikki Pitter, having taken over The Otters' second eleven, the Lyme boss, Julien Simier, was taking little notice of Ottery's league position and was sure the Seasiders had a diffiult task on their hands.

And so it proved with Ottery opening the scoring within a minute with the ball being placed wide of keeper Chris Higgs after a breakaway attack which caught the home defence napping.

With Ottery quick on the ball and fierce in the tackle, Lyme soon realised that this was a different side from the one siting at the bottom of the table with no wins out of 13 games.

Another breakaway movement down the left saw the visitors increase their lead to 2-0 in the 14th minute and before half an hour was up they were 3-0 ahead.

Whilst they were overrun by Ottery for most of the half, Lyme did have their chances. Joe Bond blazed over the bar from close range and a Fellingham free-kick was headed over the bar by Fred Parsons. Harvey Brimicombe also blasted over the bar from a good position.

Lyme were slightly unfortunate when a Joe Bond effort was kicked off the line and they might have got a penalty when Mark Bailey was sent tumbling in the box. But the Seasiders looked dejected when they trundled off the pitch at half time with a 3-0 deficit.

Lyme did show more commitment after the break but their heads went down again in the 54th minute after a fine Higgs' save was turned round the post before a corner bounced off the bar and was smashed home from close range to give Ottery a 4-0 advantage.

Lyme fought their way back into the game with two brilliant volleys from Fred Parsons in the 68th and 85th minute, but it was a disappointing display, following two good performances against Beer Albion and Tipton St John and this weekend's local derby against old rivals Axminster Town Reserves requiring the Seasiders to be at their very best.

It would be difficult to pick out a man-of-the-match in such a inept performance but the accolade should probably go to Fred Parsons for his two scintillating vollies.

Whilst Ottery 2nds were chalking up their first victory of the season, their first team were losing 13-0 at home to Torpoint.

While the firtst team continue to atruggle for consistency, Lyme Regis Reserves kept pace with the front runners in Devon and Exeter Division Three with a comfortable 4-1 victory over bottom side Exeter United.

The Ressies took an early lead through Steve Batey but United soon equalised to square matters. Lyme were soon back in front, however, when Batey headed across goals for Fred Thompson to place it into an empty net.

After the break, Lyme moved Ben Bowditch into midfield and reverted to a 4-3-3 formation. This produced dividends and United were penned in their own half for most of the second half with further goals from Ryan Fifer and a second for Steve Batey.

Manager Matt Preece commented after the game: "The conditions made the game a challenge for us, as we couldn't get the ball down and play as much as usual, but we created lot of dangerous opportunities and that's what won it for us on the day.

"Three players stood out. Ryan Fifer was a danger out wide, Ben Bowditch's work rate and energy were superb and he changed the game when he came inside, but my man-of-the-match was Steve Batey. He worked hard all game, putting their back line under pressure, got two goals and an assist and could have had a few more on another day."