JAMES Moxon’s second-half goal and assist complemented a spirited Newton Abbot Spurs performance on Tuesday night as they battled to a 2-0 victory over Okehampton Argyle.

Moxon opened the scoring four minutes into the second period before Toby Pullman doubled the advantage just three minutes later.

It comes as Newton’s first win of the campaign after a gruelling two-week break since their season opener against Crediton United. Visiting Okehampton were yet to concede in their three wins coming into the tie.

Argyle showed why they should be considered among the teams to beat this season as a barnstorming start saw the side dominating possession with slick, fast-paced football. The Okey saw their first chance of the night go begging on seven minutes when Jamal Bokhammas sent a deep cross in for Luke Mortimore, but his glancing header trickled just wide of the post.

Mortimore saw another chance come to nothing soon after as he floated a half-volley towards the far post off of a smart cross-field ball. Spurs stopper Joel Hawker-Patchett was rooted to the spot but could breathe a sigh of relief as the acrobatic effort struck the post.

Newton gradually found their feet and saw their first real chance on the half-hour mark. Owen Green got in behind wide on the right and thumped a delivery across for Pullman, who, arriving at speed, could not stretch far enough to turn the ball towards goal.

Dominic Harnell came desperately close to putting Okehampton on the board as halftime loomed. The full-back found space on the edge of the box and pulled the trigger. It looked sure to nestle in the top corner until Hawker-Patchett executed a spectacular diving save to keep the game in deadlock.

Spurs took the lead on 49 minutes. A fabulous ball in from Will Hancox found the incoming Moxon as he slipped free of his man, and the talisman slammed his shot high into the top corner.

Three minutes later, Spurs struck again. After absorbing something of an onslaught from Okehampton, the hosts cleared and set off on a lightning-fast break. Moxon played a neat pass into the feet of Pullman, who shook off the only defender in his path, turned onto his left foot and curled a delightful effort beyond the dive of Aaron Dearing.

The quick-fire goals killed the game off as Newton put on a professional display to see out the tie. Okehampton’s characteristically-slick football turned into desperate long balls as the Spurs rearguard kept a strong line and recorded their first clean sheet since April.

Upon full-time, Spurs boss Marc Revell said: ‘I’m delighted. I went into the game a little bit excited and almost apprehensive towards our start - a 2-2 draw at Crediton - while they’ve gotten three wins on the bounce over the last week, so we’ve had a long lay-off to get ready for this.

‘When you’re playing against a side that did well last season with good management, good players and haven’t conceded a goal it’s a little bit daunting for a young side like I’ve got but I’m absolutely over the moon because I think we outfought them from minute one to minute 90.’

Unlike the busy August schedule of many other South West Peninsula League sides, Spurs had a two-week gap between their season opener against Crediton and Tuesday’s clash with Okehampton.

‘It’s almost like we’ve started our season tonight rather than starting two weeks ago at Crediton,’ said Revell.

‘The lads have had nearly two weeks off since the last game and my job was to keep them focussed and remind them how important it was to put on a performance at home here.

‘It’s something I’ve always said: we want to make this place a hard place to come to for people. We finished fifth last season and we surprised everyone but we still lost too many games at home. My message was to just outwork them tonight because I know with my side and the quality we’ve got, as long as we work our nuts off our football will shine through.

‘Given the fact we conceded so many goals last season, I will look tonight more at the positives of the clean sheet because that’s been our task and our conversation for probably the second half of last season and all of the close season and all of the post season, my thing is to be less naive and make less mistakes.

‘We scored nearly a hundred goals last season, so scoring two tonight doesn’t surprise me but keeping a clean sheet at home against one of the sides that will be in the top sort of four or five this season, that’s where my focal point will be on because I think it is a step in the right direction for my lads.

‘[The players] know how good they are, they’ve shown that against Okehampton last season, we showed it against Ivybridge at home, we showed it at Brixham last season. They’re all sides that finished in the top four, so I know how good we are offensively and how good we are as a group when we’re on our day and it’s about making sure we can have those days more often and have less days where we concede goals.’