SPARTANS recovered from a shaky start to open their Division Two account with a 3-1 win over Mint Casino in the Torbay Sunday League.

The league's new boys took an early lead at Clennon Valley as visitors Spartans — who started the game with just 10 players — struggled to find any cohesion.

But goals from Dean Swift, Philip Bryen and Simon Ross completed the turnaround after the away side got their act together.

It got worse before it got better for Spartans, though — shortly after going 1-0 down, they lost their goalkeeper Martin Broster through injury.

It meant an emergency appearance between the sticks for manager and former defender Phil Lerendu, playing his first game since a cruciate ligament operation.

"I shouldn't really be playing, but you do it for the team," said Lerendu.

"We were all over the place in the first half. My aim was to keep a clean sheet though, and I did that."

Club secretary Kevin Martin was also sent on to make up a full quota of players, and they equalised through a Swift header from a corner.

Bryen got the second with a goal likened to the famous Gazza Euro '96 effort against Scotland — although he finished it with his head — before Ross made it 3-1.

Lerendu also singled out left-back Brad Corderoy and James Lunt, who helped out in defence and attack, for praise.

Division Two's other game saw the points shared in a 1-1 draw between Nova 2010 and another new side, Sportsmans Arms, at Cricketfield Road.

The Torquay pub side took the lead through player-manager Anthony Evans just before half-time, but visitors Nova equalised through Dean Bradford in the second half.

New Nova manager Graham Godfrey said: "It was a good result for us as we were a bit under-manned and didn't have a lot of back-up."

Their selection problems weren't helped by a bug that ruled out several players over the weekend.

But Bradford rescued a point after tucking away a one-on-one chance, before being denied a possible winner by the Sportsmans' keeper in a near-identical situation a few minutes later.

Only one Division One game was played on Sunday, and that saw new Plymouth side Prince Rock cruise to an 8-0 win at Torbay Wanderers.

Appleby's failed to raise a side for their scheduled game at Dolphin Inn.