SDFL premier division

Waldon Athletic 9,

Loddiswell Athletic 0

Conditions were difficult underfoot at Windmill Hill, but Waldon Athletic’s efforts to get their league game on certainly paid dividends for the premier title challengers, even though, with suspensions and holidays taking their toll, it looked as if it could be a good day to play them.

Visitors Loddiswell Athletic tried to put a spanner in the works, but they just didn’t have enough and eventually crumbled to a heavy loss.

Nevertheless, the first half saw only the one goal, Tom Holland slotting past the advancing ­keeper after beating an offside trap that had protected the Greens up to that point most ­successfully.

Ash Harris made it two in the first minute of the second half, though, and soon after Kyle Doughty added a third.

After that the floodgates opened: Spike Bond helped ­himself to two and Josh Briscomb headed in Stan Goulding’s corner. Nick Rudge then dinked in after coming off the bench, before Harris and Holland both claimed their second goals, the latter after playing a nice give-and-go with youngster Ben Clark.

“It looked like it was going to be a hard slog in the first half,” said Waldon captain Dan Harrity. “But once we’d put two and three in, their heads dropped a little and we could pretty much score at will after that.

“It was good to get a few under our belt, especially after such a long break, because we hadn’t played since two weeks before Christmas.”

Third-placed Waldon are now just six points behind leaders Ashburton with two games in hand.

“It looks like it will be between us, Kingsteignton and Ashburton at the moment, but Buckland are always going to be dangerous and there are a couple of teams, like Upton, who can beat anybody on their day,” said Harrity. “Obviously we’ve done quite well in the cups in the past couple of seasons, winning the Herald and the Belli two years in a row, so the league’s something we’re giving a big push to this season.

“We finished second last ­season, so it’s something we’ve definitely got our eye on.”