Totnes & Dartington vs Lifton- Devon Intermediate Cup

 First visit to the Foxhole Sports Ground, set within the magnificent grounds of the Dartington Hall Estate.

Parking is available in the limited but there is very limited space, there is a pay and display but if you go down the lane, there is another car park-which is free.

The small entrance footpath, isn't very inspiring

but once you get to the end of the path, you are greeted with this

While the 2nd qualifying round of the FA cup was taking place around the country, Lifton were in action against Totnes and Dartington FC (I spent yesterday referring to them as Darting & Totness-sorry).

The ground is magnicifent, the pitch was flat. There was a club house, coffee for £1, which is the average cost for a cuppa, but it was only cheap instant coffee, still it was very welcome.

There was a decent stand

Home & Away dugouts

The benches had recently been replaced and the smell of wood was gorgeous (if you like that sort of thing)

and a bench up towards the top of the pitch

The long journey to Dartington was worth it in the end. We started the game strong with a string of chances and finding it very easy to break through their back line. Shorty put us in the lead around mid way through the first half, his shot nestling in the bottom right and corner of the goal. Towards the end of the first half Hodgey was clear and through on goal when he was brought down by one of the totnes defenders, which should have been a red card and if we had a proper referee for the game it might have been. The original referee for the game had been injured during another game in the morning so our game was refereed by the chairman of Totnes & Dartington, so we expected the decisions to not go our way most of the time. We were a little bit shakey in the early stages of the second half, but we were able to see out the pressure and get a second and deserved goal which was scored by Leon. We unfortunatley couldn't hold onto the lead and they brought it back to 2-2. Late on in the second half Ralph finally scored and made it 2-3, Ralph almost had a second but another poor decision from the ref cost us the goal. I came onto the pitch with about 2 or 3 minutes to go, to make my first apparence in the Devon Intermediate Cup. After a long game with a lot of seriously poor decisions we managed to sneak a win making the long journey worth it. 

Next week Lifton are at home to Polzeath, then on the Sunday, we are off to Home Park to watch Plymouth vs Ipswich Town