Paulton Rovers took three points on the opening day of the Jewson Western League Premier Division after winning 1-0 against Barnstaple Town.

From the early moments of the game, Barnstaple moved the ball around well, but it was clear that Paulton’s new manager Kieran Baggs' philosophy of hard work was also already instilled into the new look Rovers side.

The hosts hustled and restricted Barnstaple into making mistakes. The only goal of the game came early on in the fifth minute when Dan McBeam and Kitan Jaiyeoba combined well to get the latter on a charge into the box.

Jaiyeoba held off a challenge to get a shot away but it was parried away by the keeper. The ball fell to Kyle Witt whose close range effort was blocked but the ball fell kindly back to Jaiyeoba to fire into the net.

The goal seemed to fire Barnstaple into life and for the next thirty minutes or so they took the lions share of the possession with Rovers having to work hard to restrict any chances, but Chris Peck and Joel Smedley were tireless in midfield in breaking up Barnstaple's play.

As the half ended the game started to get a little tetchy with some strong challenges going in. Rovers began to edge their way back into good possession though and forced a couple of corners and had a Kyle Witt free kick flash past the post.

The second half played out very similarly to the first half with both teams virtually cancelling each other out leading to very few chances being created for either team.

The last few moments saw Barnstaple upping the pressure but they were unable to breakdown Rovers and the hosts hung on for the three points.