LYME Regis first team's pre-season friendly at old Perry Street League rivals Merriott on Tuesday night wasn't one for the purests.

The sun was very low and the grass very long. Merriott were a classic Perry Street side, aggressive and competing for everything.

The Somerset side were on top for the first 20 minutes but a combination of poor finishing and good goalkeeping from Chris Higgs kept it at 0-0.

Lyme took the lead against the run of play in the 25th minute through a brilliantly taken goal, orchestrated by Joe Bond. He rolled his man and picked out a great run from Bradley Rowe who smashed the ball past the keeper from 20 yards giving him no chance.

This sparked a good spell for Lyme who settled and were much better on the ball. The lead was doubled ten minutes later when Tyler Wellman met a corner from Robbie Fellingham to power a header past the Merriott keeper.

Lyme continued to play out the rest of the first half in control of the game.

The second half was equally scrappy and in a rare moment of quality Lyme added a third when Bond met a pin-point free kick from Fellingham to glance past the keeper from close range.

Lyme then took their foot off the gas and conceded two quick scrambled goals. The high moment of the match came when pick-of-the-league player Jamie Spurdel picked up the ball 40 yards from goal and hammered an unbelievable drive past Higgs to level the game on 70 minutes.

It was no less than Merriott deserved for their battling display and Lyme will be asking themself how they let them back in.