Brixham clean-up against nine-man Street

In a strange game at a sunny Wall Park, Brixham AFC established a third-place cushion in the Jewson Western League with a 3-1 victory at home to Street, who are one of the sides hoping to usurp them from the play-off positions.

The visitors started very brightly and grabbed an early lead through Harry Foster, but Brixham gradually found some rhythm in attacking areas and levelled matters with a goal from Reece Somers.

Street then did the Fishermen a big favour by imploding with two separate episodes of crazy indiscipline.

Firstly, Lewis Morgan was rightly given a straight red for a dangerous elbow in the face on a Brixham defender and he was followed into the dressing room by Shay Corrick, dismissed on the stroke of half-time for foul and abusive language.

Brixham now had the task of breaking down a nine-man block and, to Street’s credit, it was no easy task for the opening 25 minutes of the second period, as the visitors battled bravely to stay in the game.

The Fishermen eventually found inspiration from the bench, with substitute Cole Harford spotting a gap from wayward positioning by the visiting custodian to steer a lovely finish inside the near post. Victory was then secured by a strike on the turn from Callum Thomas.

Buckland Athletic remain fourth, despite going down to a 3-0 defeat at leaders Portishead Town.

Ryan Bush had a strong early penalty shout turned down for the Bucks but Portishead then took control, grabbing the lead with a clever finish from Jay Murray. Portishead doubled their lead on 20 minutes, as Buckland struggled to contain their hosts.

Any hopes of a recovery were dashed by a third for Portishead immediately after the restart and the focus now shifts to a massive game at Barnstaple on Saturday, with the two sides currently only separated by goal difference.