Mark Saunders says Tiverton Town’s friendlies against Torquay United and Willand Rovers in the last seven days were exactly what his players needed.

The Yellows have been starved of competitive action in recent weeks, having had their away fixture at Mangotsfield United postponed a little over a week ago.

With no scheduled game at the weekend, Tivvy have not played a competitive match this month, meaning Saunders has had to resort to two friendlies in order to keep his players sharp.

The Yellows drew 1-1 at home to npower League Two side Torquay United on Wednesday, before drawing 0-0 against Willand Rovers at their Silver Street ground on Saturday.

“It was not a great friendly but it kept us going in the right direction, which was very pleasing,” Saunders said of the match against Willand, who beat Tivvy 2-1 back in July in a pre-season friendly.

“It was a good performance the lads put in against Torquay and the Willand game was another good exercise in the mud for us too.

“Some of the lads had not played in a football match for three weeks so it was good for them to get a run-out.

“Against Willand, we played some really nice stuff, particularly at times when we were penned in with the ball but managed to play it out very nicely.

“I think that we certainly played much better in the first half and enjoyed the best chances of the 45 minutes.

“Unfortunately, in the second half, we just stopped doing everything that went right in the first half and just did the complete opposite, and I think it’s probably fair to say Willand had the better chances.

“It obviously wasn’t like a proper, competitive match, but it was better than nothing and a good fitness exercise.

“There were no goals, but no injuries either, so a good friendly all round.”

As for the draw with the Gulls, Tivvy took the lead through Danny Clay’s headed first-half effort.

They were pegged back just six minutes later, when Ray Spear’s precise header spared the visitors’ blushes.

The two draws mean Tivvy are now undefeated in a total of 12 games – 10 of which were competitive matches.

Saunders was happy with how his players held their own against the Gulls, and how it has set them up for tonight’s game with Bishops Cleeve.

“Against Torquay, they are players who train week-in, week-out while some of our players had not played in three weeks,” he said.

“There were plenty of senior players in there too and only a couple of youth teamers.

“In terms of fitness, it was a very good run-out for us and we played well.

“I do not think that a neutral watching the game would have been able to tell which was the professional side out of the two of us.

“It was nice that we took the lead through Danny Clay and we were playing well for much of the game.

“Unfortunately, we conceded a goal through what I have to say was sloppy defending when their defender got in between our defenders.

“At the end of the day though the two games did exactly what we wanted them do, so that is positive.”