WELLINGTON Reserves suffered another frustrating afternoon when they were beaten 2-1 away by East Budleigh in the Premier Division of the Stitch2Print Devon & Exeter League. It was a third successive away game for the Tangerines and, after the previous weekend’s defeat, they were hoping to bounce back. Jack Bryant was unlucky not to open the scoring on two occasions. The first came on 20 minutes when he turned on the edge of the box and fired a first-time shot which only just went the wrong side of the post.

His second effort was even more frustrating when, five minutes later, he picked up a fine pass from Alfie Barrett. As he went round the advancing keeper, he hit the ball towards the empty net to only see the home full-back clear it off the line.

The home team did create a chance after 40 minutes, keeper Charlie Hawkings pushing a fine shot from 20 yards around his post.

But with the game approaching half-time, Budleigh broke the deadlock when a corner was swung into the near post and the ball was flicked home.

Budleigh increased their lead after an hour when poor defending from a quick throw-in saw the ball find its way to the back post and a unmarked home player had plenty of time to knock it past Hawkings.

Player-manager Mark Owen decided to change the formation and Wellington seemed to be creating more chances but poor finishing or a poor final ball were the story of the day.

With 15 minutes to go, the visitors did find a way back into the game when Jack Bryant headed home from close range. Wellington: Charlie Hawkings, Wes Poulsom, Connor Noble, Sam Bryant, Connor Pengelly, Sam Poole, Oli Nott, Ollie Ackland, Alfie Barrett, Jack Bryant, Rohan Poulsom Substitutes: Ned Ogilvie and Elijah Hillier (used ); Mark Owen (not).