WESTERN FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Brixham 5, Ivybridge Town 1

AN early goal from Jacob Smelt failed to give Ivybridge Town the necessary boost in their visit to high-flying Brixham, who bounced back to claim a 5-1 home victory in their Boxing Day Jewson Western League clash, writes Graham Hambly.

Smelt opened the scoring with a cracking effort from a free kick in the 13th minute as Ivybridge looked to build on an impressive 10-0 home win over Welton Rovers in their previous game.

But championship-chasing Brixham bounced back to take a 2-1 interval lead with goals from James Moxon in the 20th minute and George Dandridge in first-half stoppage time.

Further Brixham goals followed in the second half through Reece Somers (49th minute), Kieran Parkin (82nd minute) and substitute Jaden Maslen in the fourth minute of added time.

Ivybridge will now look to start 2025 on a bright note when they host Wellington at Erme Valley on New Year’s Day (3pm).

That will be their only home match in January as they then face a run of five successive away matches. They were due to play at home to Clevedon on January 18, but that fixture has been postponed because Clevedon are involved in a Les Phillips League Cup game at Portishead that day. Instead, Ivybridge will now play a re-arranged match at Saltash that afternoon.