FOR the third week running Bude were forced into a number of changes as they lost 3-0 at home to league leaders Sidmouth and Ottery.

Another young and inexperienced team took to the field but they have grown in a short space of time and based upon this performance against unbeaten top of the league, there is a lot of promise and hope for the second half of the season.

An edgy opening in chilly conditions saw both teams have time on the ball but the majority of the play was in Bude’s half. Had it not been for home captain David Woodward, who dropped back into his less favoured central defensive role, it could have been one-way traffic.

The team rallied around Woodward — listening to his leadership calls and working hard together in all areas of the pitch to keep Sidmouth at bay. And it was only midway through the half from a well-worked short corner routine that Sidmouth broke the deadlock.

Bude continued to be solid in defence whilst trying to push forward and gained some limited success but were unable to create any clearcut chances of their own.

They were dealt a hammer blow when Woodward’s defensive right hand man Paul Floyd hobbled off with a re-occurring hamstring injury and Sidmouth soon capitalised as another short corner routine ended up in the North Cornwall side’s net.

Bude regathered and reshuffled their diminishing team yet again. Early in the second-half Sidmouth took advantage as some poor marking in the midfield allowed them to fire a ball into the D, which was neatly deflected into the corner by their striker.

Bude never gave up and showed great resilience and team spirit to keep Sidmouth from running away with the game with every home player popping up at the right time making a timely interception or tackle.

The game took a turn for the worse late on in the second-half as a Sidmouth player was struck at point-blank range from a defensive clearance, the fierce clearance saw the ball rise rapidly and catch him square on the head making an ominous cracking noise in the process.

Play was duly halted so the player could receive treatment. But soon after it was clear the injury was so serious that both the captains and umpires agreed it was in everyone’s best interest that the game end at this point knowing that the game was already won and the result would stand having played enough time to meet the league rules.

Bude made a marked improvement on last week and look forward to the Christmas break to allow the squad to get back to full strength, knowing that a more settled squad should hopefully help them rediscover their winning run from early in the season.

They’ll get the chance to start to turn around their form on Saturday, January 13 when they make the trip to Camborne School of Mines (1pm), who are just one point behind them in the table.