Tiverton Town 2-1 Taunton Town: Peacocks lose to M5 rivals

Taunton Town suffered defeat in their clash with local rivals Tiverton Town in their latest league clash.

The Peacocks had been undefeated against their M5 neighbours since returning to step 3 of non-league but the side from Mid-Devon scored an acrobatic late goal to secure a win.

This was also Gary Johnson’s first defeat since officially taking over as manager of the first team just before Christmas.

The manager named an unchanged team for the visit to Tiverton. Taunton-born Gabe Billington was in the home side’s team.

Both sides made a cagey start to the match, but it was Taunton who forced the opening chance as Ben Seymour swung the ball into the box, but Scott Robinson’s header was over the bar.

Alfie Moulden also had a good chance on 33 minutes after good play from Jack Rice, but his shot went wide.

The hosts took the lead on 39 minutes as a curling effort found the top corner.

A couple changes early in the second half saw Owen Brain and Seidou Sanogo introduced and on 61 minutes a corner from Brain found the head of Max Hill but he headed over.

Less than 60 seconds later, Tom Purrington had another headed chance but his effort also went over the bar.

On 70 minutes, target man Chris Zebroski was brough on for Scott Robinson as Taunton chased a winner.

With 19 minutes left, Ben Seymour had a big chance, however he was only able to direct the ball over the bar.

Taunton did equalise with 10 minutes to go, as Sanogo touched into the net.

However, it was Tiverton Town who took the bragging rights as Dan Koita hit an overhead kick as Franky Phillips was scrambling to get back to his line on 82 minutes.

With time running out, Sanogo struck wide after good play from Owen Brain but it was not meant to be for Taunton Town.

The Peacocks were due to be playing Wimborne away from home on Tuesday (January 6) but the match was called off due to the freezing conditions.