Weymouth’s Day Goes Pair Shaped

With three games in hand over visitors Hinckley United and only three points adrift, this was another six pointer, but without the services of Julian Charles and Ryan Ashford Geoff Butler shuffled his meagre pack and pushed Mark Robinson forward with Michael Dean slotting into his position. Danny Bailey made a welcome return from injury.

For the first quarter hour it was the home side that were penned in their own half by the robust Knitters from Leicestershire, a number of strong arm tactics went unnoticed by the officials as Hinckley started to stamp their authority onto the game, Weymouth only making the odd hit and rum attempts.

Scott Voice found himself with space in the box with less than a minute on the clock; his shot was pushed straight to Matthews.

Hinckley’s Stuart Storer tripped Lee Phillips right on the edge of the box with 15 minutes gone, he was booked and Weymouth wasted the free kick.

Weymouth needed a goal to settle themselves and bring some much needed confidence back into the side, and not a moment too soon, as Mark Robinson let fly from all of 30 yards after 26 minutes, Tom Whittle in the Hinckley goal had no chance.

Weymouth should have stretched their lead on 35 minutes, the keeper blocked Steve Tully’s pile driving effort from 20 yards, and the ball came out to Phillips who blasted the ball goalwards only for Whittle to stick out a leg to foil the Cornishman.

Tully and Hale were absolutely rampant on their respective flanks as the rain started to fall and Weymouth began to dominate, it came as no surprise when Robinson bagged his second right on half time Hutchinson’s corner sought out the figure of Phillips, his header beat the keeper and with the ball loose Robinson rammed home.

So at half time the score was: Weymouth 2 Hinckley United 0

Buoyed up after their quartered oranges and chit-chat, Weymouth produced some of their best attacking football at the Wessex for some time; however, wave after wave of attack was foiled not by resolute defending but by poor finishing as the steward were kept busy all afternoon retrieving balls from the training pitch.

Hutchinson pushed the ball along the line for Robinson to chase, beating then turning his marker inside out, Robinson’s cross picked out Phillips at the far post but he shot back across the face of goal from 8 yards. Seven minutes later and with an hour gone, another far post cross from Robinson was met by Phillips; his header was straight into the arms of Whittle.

But Hinckley clawed themselves back into the game on 63 minutes; a static Weymouth defence watched an innocuous cross from Preston, Matthews flapped as Wayne Dyer snuck in at the back to slot home.

Still Weymouth piled forward, a Robinson cut back fed Dean who from 35 yards let fly, alas there was to be no repeat of his Tuesday night net buster as the ball flew inches over the bar. But almost as if scripted, Hinckley equalised on 71 minutes, the towering Scott Voice rose above the Weymouth defence to power his header into the back of the net

Weymouth became jittery as the realism of a possible home defeat blunted their enthusiasm for attack although Simon Browne powered onto the end of a Dean corner ball his header crashing over the bar.

The last ten minutes was nail biting stuff as both sides could have taken all three points but at the final whistle the score was:

Weymouth 2 Hinckley United 2

Sponsors: (Karen’s Motorcycle Training) Top Terra, Mark Robinson

Weymouth only have themselves to blame for throwing away a two-goal lead from Robinson two goal strike. However, on a positive note, if the Terras play like this for the rest of the season, there is no way they are going down.

Weymouth:
Jason Matthews, Steve Tully, Somin Browne, Alex Browne (c), John Waldock, Matthew Hale, Mark Robinson 2, Ian Hutchinson, Danny Bailey, Michael Dean, Lee Phillips.
Subs: Michael Sajic, Marc Whiteman, Mark Kenway, Simon Critchell
Goals: Robinson 26, 45

Hinckley United:
Tom Whittle, Neil Cartwright, Jamie March, Dave Crowley, Simon Dakin, Niki Preston,
Stuart Storer (c), Wayne Dyer 1, David Sadler, Scott Voice 1, Tim Wilks.
Subs: Chris Smith, Martin Fox, Leon Doughty
Goals: Dyer 63, Voice 71

Referee: Mark Edmonds ( Tidworth )
Assistants: Gary Hicks (Taunton), Tim Lawrence (Bridgewater)

Attendance: 604