Devizes 4 Radstock 2

Devizes produced a stylish victory in torrid conditions to ease the tension between players and manager Paul Thompson who after taking 48 hours out of the game believes his side's reaction was out of the top draw.

Thompson took his side's poor performance on Saturday personally but was pleased with their efforts on Tuesday.

He said: "The situation Saturday was that it was a poor performance and the application was poor. I felt it was a personal slap in the face. I took 48 hours out of the game to get away from football. Tonight I let Steve Hale take the side and the reaction was top draw for 80 minutes. We completely dominated. We worked hard and played some good football on a wet and heavy pitch but this was the best we have played all season."

Thompson left the dug out at the end of the first half on Saturday as his side failed to score against Westside from the Wiltshire League and refused to return. He made it clear he felt let down by his players and was considering his position as manager.

But after Tuesday's performance all is back to normal at Nursteed Road.

Devizes had all the early chances with Kris Beasley going close on five minutes and Ryan Trowbridge heading over from a corner two minutes later. Scott Griffin then had two opportunities after but failed to convert his chances.

Devizes was then made to pay for poor finishing as Radstock took the lead through James Billy after a cross from Martin Kerton on 35 minutes.

But Devizes were not behind for long as Dan Sloan followed in on Griffin's long range shot.The keeper failed to deal with the effort on the rain soaked surface and Sloan pounced to equalise a minute before half time.

Devizes' second goal was a great flowing move down the right hand side as Sloan put through Lee Mcmullen who squared the ball for Griffin who grabbed a well-deserved goal on the hour mark.

Gary Campbell then saw his header hit the angle two minutes later but the prize for the best goal of the night went to Jeremy Newton after his volley from 18 yards found the net on 66 minutes.

Two minutes later Radstock gave Devizes a scare when Danny Hunt hit the bar from 25 yards. Hunt then found then net after poor goal keeping from Owen Dunn. Dunn failed to deal with a shot and parried it in to the path of Hunt who finished from six yards.

Sloan rapped up the win after Gary Stevens dropped a cross and Mcmullen set up Sloan from 15 yards out.

Hale who managed the side said: " We played very well tonight apart from the sloppy goals. We had a tremendous work rate and we showed guts to get the win. It could have been more tonight as their goalkeeper made four or five good saves. The whole team was brilliant. It was good to see Josh Digby back to his best and Dan Sloan getting his goals."