A 96th minute winner from Owen Howe saw Martyn Rogers’ home-coming start with three points at Ladysmead yesterday as Tiverton Town beat Larkhall Athletic 2-1 in the Southern league.

Rogers, who has over 1,000 games under his belt, will seldom have been more delighted with a win.

Larkhall, in their first game at this level after trouncing the Western League, looked a decent outfit in a game that was always feisty and saw two mass brawls.

After an even first period the visitors took the lead in the 53rd minute when Tivvy, who were down to ten men at the time, failed to deal with a corner and defender Ollie Price steered the ball home on his debut.

Substitute Jimmy Hinds and Josh Searle went close to equalising but it took a superb block from Tom Gardner to keep Tivvy in it.

They levelled in the 78th minute through a deflected Dan Western shot which sent keeper Chris Snoddy the wrong way.

Tivvy then put Larkhall under pressure before that stoppage time header from Howe following a James Richards corner.

Man-of-the-match: Dan Western. Attendance: 240.