LEWIS Perring’s late solo effort secured a deserved three points for Bovey Tracey on Tuesday night as an entertaining Peninsula League encounter saw a 1-0 victory over Ivybridge Town.

Perring’s winner came with 15 seconds remaining in normal time and was the result of consistent pressure from the hosts, with Ivybridge playing the final 20 minutes without the services of Owen Raven after he was shown a second yellow card.

But despite their dominance, the Moorlanders won by a hair as Ivybridge struck the underside of the crossbar with the last kick of the game. The assistant was well-positioned to wave away claims of the ball crossing the line.

‘I think [it was deserved],’ said Bovey boss Will Small. ‘We created a lot of chances and got unlucky hitting the bar and the post in the first half. 

‘But I thought going forward on the counterattack, we looked very sharp. [Ivybridge] will consider themselves a little bit unlucky but I think we deserved the three points.’

Bovey Tracey 1-0 Ivybridge Town
Neil Last, right, blasts a free-kick from the edge of the box. (Alan Craig)

A thrilling tie from the off, the first real chance came on 15 minutes when Ivy goalkeeper Kane Gregory was caught marauding off his line by Perring, who tried to lift a clever effort over the gloves-man. Defender Jake Lane was wise to the shot and got back to head clear from the goal line.

Minutes later, the Ivies saw a great chance of their own brilliantly saved by Dom Aplin after an extraordinary delivery across the back of the defence found Harvey Tomlinson at the far post, but his powerful shot was too close to Aplin.

Continuing a short period of attacking joy, Ivybridge saw several shots bravely blocked in a scramble in the penalty area. The ball was then sprayed forward to Bovey winger Cal Leech, who caught everyone out with a dipping effort from range that bounced back off the bar for Chester Walters to arrow a first-time effort back off the post.

‘They’re a good side and they’ve been up there in the top four all season,’ Small said. ‘We were a little bit sloppy but at the same time unlucky with the three that hit the bar and one that hit the post; if they go in, they’re all contenders for goal of the season, it was one of those. 

‘But it looked like we were going to get one eventually and a bit of magic from Lewis got us the goal we deserved.’

Bovey were in the ascendency for the final 20 minutes. Sprightly winger Kelson Pollard was a thorn in the side of the Ivy defence all night and was brought to ground after a neat corner routine but saw his appeals turned down. Soon after, Ivy survived another scare when Gregory produced a superb reaction save to keep out a header from Simon Laughton.

Bovey Tracey 1-0 Ivybridge Town
Kelson Pollard, right, has been an attacking threat since joining Bovey Tracey recently. (Alan Craig)

But the stubborn Ivies would eventually crack just seconds away from injury-time. Perring received the ball on the left flank and set off on a jinking run which beat two men – toppling one over – and he blasted his shot into the far corner to complete Bovey’s league double over Ivybridge.

‘On Saturday [in the defeat to Cullompton Rangers], Lewis wasn’t playing and Kelson wasn’t playing, so we lacked pace down our left-hand side,’ explained Small. ‘We lacked pace in attack but it was more the attitude and the work-rate; we were on it from the get-go today, which tends to be the way this season against the top teams. 

‘If you look at our results, they’re all pretty positive; we’ve beaten Brixham, we drew with Crediton [United] when we had nine men for half an hour and we’ve played Ivybridge three times this season and beaten them three times. Results against the top teams are not a problem; it’s when we’re playing the lower teams and the teams around the bottom that we don’t feel we can raise our game. If we can address that, I have no doubt we would be in the top three or four.’

Bovey are looking forward to a busy weekend with home matches against both Crediton and Newton Abbot Spurs to come on Saturday, April 8 and Monday, April 10 respectively.

‘Hopefully [this will create a bounce],’ Small said. ‘We’ve got another big one on Saturday against Crediton; they’re going for the league title and they’ve got aspirations to go up, so that’ll be a tough one for us and then again the local derby against Newton Spurs on Monday. 

‘It was good tonight to get the three points, a bit of momentum and a feel-good factor back in the changing room ahead of those games.’