Slimbridge travelled to The Sports Ground to take on Bideford, and were comprehensively outplayed, conceding two first half goals. It took until the sixth minute of second half stoppage time before the Swans had a shot on target, and Speers made no attempt to his disappointment at the 2-0 defeat.  

‘We were miles off it – Bideford have some great attributes as a team, they work hard, they’re in your face, they fight second balls, and do all of the basics really well. That’s why they’re a really difficult team to play against, you never see them getting beaten by large scores, even by the top teams. 

It was like our boys didn’t realise what they were coming up against, we were short all over the pitch, we actually started quite well after the goal, we got the ball down and started playing it around, but we didn’t play well over the period of either half – each half was a different game because of the wind, but they had the better chances and were well worth the three points to be honest, it was really disappointing.

I tend to find that when we have a load of games, we’re a lot better, so having had a break last weekend didn’t help us. Last time we had a break it killed us as well, but we can’t let that keep on being the same excuse. You’ve got to be ready, you’ve got to be prepared, and I don’t think the players turned up prepared. We were lacklustre, and it was very very unlike us, but you have these games, we’ve now got a run of six games, with four of them against teams who are going for the title or the play offs, and if we turn up again like that we’re going to get rolled over. 

I want to try and take some positives from it though, and this might be a really good wake up call, we’ll get a good week of training, and let’s put it to bed. Every team has these games, but these are games that I feel that where we are in our development as a club, we should be at a minimum taking a point from games like this. It was really disappointing to let ourselves down. But we go again, and we move on to Saturday and Parkway…..’

On a sunny but very blustery day in North Devon, the home side had an ideal start, taking the lead within the first minute of the match. Charles Hanson, playing with the wind behind him tried a long range effort which Lewis Adams saved, but was unable to hold on to in the swirling breeze. With the Swans back four slow to react, Alex Moyse nipped in to collect the free ball, and played in Louis Jagger Cane who had an open goal from two yards out and made no mistake. 

Bideford were having by far the better of the play, and Matthew Buchan went close on two occasions around the quarter hour mark, but Slimbridge survived. 

On 27 minutes though, Bideford doubled their lead – Joe Charles broke from the centre circle, and outpaced the Swans defenders, slipping the ball past Adams to put the hosts two goals to the good.

The momentum of the first half remained with Bideford, and both Jagger Cane and then Hanson both went close with efforts before the half time break. 

Slimbridge had a couple of half chances as the second half progressed – Jack Spark saw his header saved on the line by Biddy keeper Adam Seedhouse Evans, and Ben McLean was off target with another effort, but chances were few and far between. 

With five minutes remaining, Buchan latched on to a poor back pass, and took the ball round Adams, only to put his effort wide as Bideford pushed for a third. 

A minute later, Edji Mbunga chased a through ball which came to Ben Hands, but his effort was too high, and summed up the afternoon for the visitors. 

On 87 minutes, Hanson again went close for Bideford, and in the sixth minute of stoppage time, Mbunga had the Swans' only shot on target, but it was easily gathered by Seedhouse Evans. 

The Swans return to Thornhill Park next Saturday, when Play Off chasing Plymouth Parkway provide the opposition (3.00pm). Meanwhile on Wednesday (23^rd, 7.30pm), Slimbridge Under 18’s make the trip to Hereford Pegasus Under 18’s for a League encounter. 

Team: Adams, Spark, Turner (Ogbeifun 76), Ford, Dennis, Lawrence Novakovic 53), Yeo, Hands, Mbunga, McLean, Thomas (Smith 59)