Okehampton created a lot of chances at Ivybridge and were the better side but eventually had to pay for several missed chances, writes Charlie Bond.

In football, if you are dominating the game, you can’t afford to sit on a one goal lead and Argyle found this out to their cost in the last minute on Saturday.

The game started off evenly but eventually Okehampton’s good approach play saw them start to get on top. In fact in the last 20 minutes of the first half, they frittered away five or six good chances to take the lead. However, two minutes before the interval, Alex Gray played a lovely ball forward to release Brad Ausden to run on and place the ball past the home keeper to send the Okes in 1 – 0 up at half-time. The feeling of the away supporters was that with better finishing, a more representative score would have been 3 – 0 but this was not a day the Argyle forwards will want to remember.

Five minutes into the second half saw Ausden almost score a second but he was thwarted by a great block on the line by a home defender. Five minutes later, a great effort by Luke Alden was well saved by the home keeper. Okehampton then allowed Ivybridge back into the game and they began to pose the defence some difficulties as you would expect from a team lying fourth in the league.

Argyle compounded their problems by constantly playing the ball back to keeper Aaron Dearing whose enormously long kicks constantly fell to Ivybridge defenders who immediately played the ball back into the Okes’ half. This boring route-one football is not what one would usually associate with Argyle who normally play the ball well out of defence and through the midfield with clever passing movements and on this occasion it constantly put Okehampton back on the defensive. However, Okehampton still came back to carve out a couple of good chances.

On 37 minutes, Luke Mortimore’s free kick found Jake Rowe who went close with a good effort and five minutes later, Luke Alden’s fierce shot came back off the bar after a good run from the left. Just when it looked like the Okes would escape with all three points, a last ditch effort from Ivybridge saw them break down the right and their wide player completely miss-hit his cross which fell behind Dearing and defender Tyler Dawe was forced to handle the ball to prevent it entering the net. Ivybridge’s Fletcher Williams stepped up to crash home an unstoppable penalty for a share of the points. There was only time for Argyle to kick off before the referee blew the final whistle and Okehampton went home regretting the raft of chances they had failed to convert.

Argyle’s man of the match was awarded to Dom Harnell for a flawless performance: Saturday, April 22, Okehampton are at home to Torrington Town with a 3pm kick-off.