JASON Matthews suffered a birthday to forget after being sent off in Weymouth’s 1-0 defeat at Havant and
Waterlooville.
The Terras keeper, who was 30 yesterday, was red-carded after handling outside of his area early in the setback at West Leigh Park.
Hawks defender Neil Sharp headed the first-half winner to condemn Steve Johnson’s freefalling side to another Nationwide South reversal.
And Matthews revealed his third dismissal of the season made it back-to-back miserable birthdays.
He told Echosport: “I remember last season I was dropped by Steve Claridge on my birthday for the Welling game which we lost.
“That was a big blow at the time and now this happens this year which is even worse.
“It must be something about playing around the time of my birthday which causes me bad luck.
“It’s really frustrating because up until this season I’d never been sent off in my career and I’ve now been red-carded three times this season alone.
“To be honest, I thought the red card was a bit harsh.
“I came to collect a high ball which ran through to the edge of the area and my momentum carried me through and slightly outside the box.
“I know the referee had to follow the letter of the law but even so I thought he might have given me the benefit of the doubt.
“The fact the decision was so early in the game affected the course of the match because we had to make a substitution soon after and played with ten men for so long.
“The lads battled well all afternoon but we just seemed to lack that little bit of cutting edge in the final third.
“The final ball didn’t seem to be too good which was frustrating because our build up play was promising.”
Assistant boss Gary Borthwick refused to close the door on Weymouth’s play-off hopes despite only taking four points from the last 21.
He said: “We reckon 70 points will be enough to get in the play-offs at the end of the season and we have 44 with nine games left.
“Realistically we need to win every game left but we’ve got to believe we can do it.”
