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Wannell sees red as Terras beaten by strugglers
By David Williams
| TEN-MAN Weymouth saw their four-match winning streak in the Southern Premier Division come to an abrupt end at the Glass World Stadium against previously winless Histon.Joe Peacock’s opener and a brace from Matt Lowe gave the hosts their first victory in the league this season.
However, the Terras had to play nearly the whole game a player short after Jake Wannell was sent off for a professional foul with only three minutes on the clock. Wannell brought down midfielder Peacock and, with referee Alan Dale deeming the defender to be the last man, he was shown a straight red card. “It was a tough day at the office,” said Terras’ player-manager Jason Matthews. “We didn’t start right and Jake got a straight red. “I felt it was a little bit harsh but seeing as he was the last man he probably had to go. “We had our backs to the wall then and we weren’t on our game, and we got punished. “Without playing well, I thought we did okay in the first half. “We missed an open goal just before half-time and they went straight down the other end and scored. “It was an uphill battle from then on and we huffed and puffed in the second half. “We could have got back into it but they got two quick goals.” Matthews admitted his side’s performance has given him “food for thought” ahead of tomorrow’s night’s trip to Bideford. “We’ll go away and rethink our strategy,” he added. Weymouth began Saturday’s encounter with the same side that started the FA Cup success at Mangotsfield seven days previously. After Wannell’s departure, Histon, buoyed by their visitors’ early misfortune, looked to get on top in the first 20 minutes and Matthews was the busier of the two keepers to start with. However, although he was forced into a couple of saves, Matthews wasn’t severely tested by the home side. But when it seemed Weymouth had done enough to get to the break without conceding, the hosts struck in first-half injury-time. And the frustrating thing from the Terras’ point of view was that it could have been them savouring a half-time lead. Histon keeper Enol Ordonez fumbled the ball more than once in the same passage of play but the visitors just couldn’t find the back of the net when given the chance. A break from one area to the other then resulted in Peacock being given time to turn and fire past Matthews. Undaunted at the task in front of them, the Terras started the second half positively and captain Stewart Yetton went close to equalising when his effort hit the top of the Histon bar. Unfortunately, that bit of bad luck was made worse when Histon doubled their tally on the hour, Lowe cutting inside a defender before firing high into the roof of Matthews’ goal. And that man Lowe did it again with an even better finish four minutes later, leaving Matthews motionless as the Histon player’s piledriver flew past him. Yetton had a great opportunity to pull one back only for Ordonez to deny the Terras’ skipper when he was through one-on-one. And Nick Freeman went agonisingly close to making it 4-0 late on but his curling shot went wide of the post.
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