Honiton Town suffered a second successive defeat in the South West Peninsula League Premier East as they went down 2-1 at Dartmouth AFC on Saturday.

Beaten 1-0 at Cullompton Rangers in midweek, where a 55th-minute penalty proved the difference between the sides, the Hippos had Tom Perryman and Owen Hanks back on their bench and gave a debut to Sam Kemp, as Jake Sellick also returned.

And the visitors made a perfect start on a dry pitch, taking the lead inside the first five minutes.

A mistake by the home keeper saw a poor clearance heading back towards his own goal, with debutant Kemp winning the race to guide the ball into the empty net.

However, Honiton's joy was shortlived as Dartmouth poked home an equaliser 10 minutes later, when Jake Wreford was unable to make a clean take.

Both keepers had very little else to do in the first half, although Wreford saw a speculative long-range effort hit his crossbar and rebound to safety.

Honiton's best chance fell to River Leisk, who did well to make space and fire goalwards without troubling the home keeper.

Dan Tavender was replaced by Ben Ede early in the second half, while Joel Jackson and Leisk made way for Hanks and Sellick on the hour.

But neither side could create any chances of note until the 80th minute when Dartmouth scrambled the ball over the line to take the lead.

Leroy Venn and Tavender made a final change on 85 minutes and switched formation as Elliot Dyer was replaced by Perryman, but Town could not find a late equaliser as had been the case on their previous trip to Longcross.

Harry Slack was named man of the match for the Hippos.

And Honiton's young managers will hope to be able to call on some of their senior players after injury and holidays as they look to bounce back when they visit Holsworthy on Saturday (3pm).

Honiton: Wreford, Smith, R Leisk, Doble, Dyer, Slack, Jackson, Tavender, Kemp, Howell, Savage. Subs: Hanks, Perryman, Ede, Sellick. Unused sub: Venn.