THE Seasiders brought the curtain down on an excellent season with a 1-1 draw at runners-up Elburton Villa on Tuesday night.

Bude headed down to the outskirts of Plymouth knowing that victory would see them end seventh ahead of neighbours Holsworthy, but despite more than matching their illustrious hosts for long spells, needed a late penalty from Tornado Bello to grab a point.

From the side that won 2-0 at Launceston on Saturday courtesy of goals from Ollie Cleave and Rio Colgrave, there were four changes.

Skipper Finn Reeve was ill meaning a start for Ruan Tape at left-back, and with Harrison Swatton and Ollie Cleave injured and Billy Hopcroft unavailable, there were call-ups for Abdul Deifa, Colgrave and top-scorer Bello.

The first half saw the home side have the majority of the ball, but were restricted to a series of long shots that were either off-target or blocked. That said, they should have had a penalty when keeper Ty Rowe went to punch a cross and only connected with a home player who had to be taken off with suspected broken ribs.

At the other end, the visitors saw centre-half Harry Hopcroft nearly curl in the opener from 20 yards, only for a magnificent save from Jordan Duffey to tip the ball over the crossbar.

Up to the 70-minute mark it was again the free-scoring Villa that dominated possession, but again Rowe was largely untested.

With 20 minutes to go, Bello missed a good chance when he could only dink the ball onto the roof of the net with just Duffey to beat from the right side of the box, while five minutes later a brilliant jinking run from midfielder Dylan Morgan saw him fire narrowly wide from 20 yards.

As is so often the case when you don’t take your chances, good sides punish you and Elburton went in front on 78 minutes as after Town failed to clear their lines properly, Calum Merrin's shot from 15 yards found its way into the corner.

However, with three minutes of normal time remaining, a brilliant 40-yard run from the diminutive Piran Friend ended with the attacker being taken out in the box, and Bello made no mistake.

Colgrave had a shot saved late on, but Bude had to settle for a share of the spoils and a more than handy eighth-placed finish.

Boss Steve Hackett admitted he had mixed feelings on the evening.

He said: “I felt we went toe-to-toe with a side who finished as runners-up on their own ground.

“On another day we could have won that match, but we’re happy with a point even though it could possibly have been all three.

“I was proud of the performance again, and over the last few games we’ve done really well.

“I’m very proud of the boys and the character, the energy and the work-rate they’ve given. They’re an incredible bunch who’ve done really well this season for the club.

“The most pleasing thing is we’re seeing progress, we were 11 points and six league places better off than last year, and there are games we felt we should have won which we didn’t. It goes to show how much progress we’ve made in such a short period of time.”

BUDE TOWN: Ty Rowe; Jake Woodland (Billy Hopgood), Harry Hopcroft (capt), James Wheeler, Ruan Tape; Dylan Morgan, Nathan Colley, Piran Friend; Abdul Deifa (Oska Holmes), Tornado Bello, Rio Colgrave. Subs not used: Liam Dart, Steve Hackett.

Seasiders’ man-of-the-match: James Wheeler.