The Championship

Plymouth University 2 Wotton-under-Edge 4

CHAMPIONSHIP leaders Wotton-Under-Edge travelled to Devon for an early start in this fixture against a much-improved Plymouth side and return with yet another away win.

With injured skipper Alistair Hammond on the sidelines, 17-year-old Mike Buist wore the captain’s armband.

The university team started well and brought a pace and intensity to the game that Wotton have yet to experience in this league.

It was, however, the Gloucestershire side who had the more clear cut chances with Harry Willcox narrowly shooting wide from a strong strike.

More Plymouth pressure resulted in goalie George Lampkin having to make some fine saves from short corners with Wotton’s defence of James Cruickshank, Henry Patteson, Will Cave and Seb Culpepper all making vital contributions.

Wotton soon won a short of their own, which Ryan Howarth despatched into the bottom corner to open the scoring.

This provided the away side with confidence and they soon grew into the game.

Another short corner followed and Howarth chose the same corner to make it 2-0.

Plymouth then scored a scrappy goal on the break with Wotton’s protests against the umpire’s decision resulting in two green cards.

If anything, this seemed to wake the away side up.

Fired up, another short was won by some good work by Dan Jones in the ‘D’.

This time Rob Davies took advantage of the bottom corner to make it 3-1.

The second half resulted in constant pressure from the university.

Skipper Buist really brought himself into the game with a determined performance which earned him the player of the match award.

A long ball from Plymouth resulted in a good finish on the reverse from their striker making the game 3-2.

Several chances then fell to Wotton who on another day would have put them away.

With time running out, player-coach Matt Fairburn put the game to bed with a goal from close range making the final score 4-2.