Hard work starts now for Porter and Brixham

BRIXHAM will be playing Southern League football next season after winning their Western League Premier Division play-off final 2-1 at Clevedon Town.

- RICHARD HUGHES

While Torquay United were playing their National League South play-off semi-final against Boreham Wood across Tor Bay at Plainmoor, Brixham were in North Somerset for the biggest game in the club’s history - and they upset all the pre-match predictions with a sensational win, courtesy of two James Moxon goals, that will now see them playing in Division One South of the Southern League alongside fellow Devon teams Bideford, Exmouth Town, Tavistock and Willand Rovers.

It is an astonishing achievement for a team that only won promotion from the South West Peninsula League two seasons ago.

Joint manager Tim Porter said: “It's a bit bizarre really - we never anticipated we would be in this position. We didn’t anticipate us being in the Western League, let's be honest, a couple of years ago.

“And now the Western League has come and gone in the blink of an eye, which is bizarre really. We have hardly had time to enjoy that, let alone get the club ready for the Western League and now, all of a sudden, we have advanced even further.”

Brixham AFC only became a club in 2012 when Brixham United and Brixham Villa amalgamated. In 2014 the team won promotion to the Peninsula League by finishing second in the South Devon League.