Cirencester Town 0 v 3 Weymouth | 7th October 2014

Centurions fall to super Weymouth
By Dan Rose

Boss Matthews made one alteration from the XI that started Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Redditch, with Yeovil loanee Calvin Brooks making his first start for the club in place of Tim Sills, allowing Chris McPhee to operate higher up the pitch with Yetton deployed as a lone striker.

And after Weymouth comfortably dealt with an early corner, Cirencester’s Jamie Reid tried his luck with a pot-shot from 25 yards, but he blazed his effort out of the ground with four minutes gone.

A number of speculative efforts then failed to test Matthews in the Weymouth goal during a frantic opening.

However, as the home side failed to hit the target, Kelly made no mistake as he struck a shot, the Terras’ first on goal, and saw it curl round Centurions’ keeper Glyn Garner on 13 minutes to open the scoring.

Five minutes later, the Terras then thought that they had doubled their lead momentarily as captain Yetton, who bagged a brace on his last visit to Cirencester almost a year ago, turned the ball in but referee Adam Nunn’s assistant quickly flagged for offside.

Matthews then had to deal with an effort from striker Aidan Bennett, a hat-trick hero for the Centurions on Saturday who continued to look dangerous, but following that, Kelly was at it again on 25 minutes.

He chanced his arm from range once more, and although the shot took a deflection and looped high into the air, Garner could do nothing to prevent the ball finding the net and Terras doubling their advantage.

At this point Kelly was running riot as the visitors looked ever-dangerous on the counter-attack.

The former Salisbury City man could have had his hat-trick as he went close once again just short of the half-hour mark, as the home defence was in sixes and sevens trying to deal with the Terras’ movement.

And it was an extremely pleased Matthews who led his side off at the interval, after Cirencester’s Ellis Dunton failed to find a clean contact on his header to work the Weymouth stopper just short of the break.

Following a cagey fifteen minute spell after half-time, Centurions’ substitute Ben Hooper made his entrance just past the hour mark, and with virtually his first touch of the game he smashed the ball just wide of Matthews’ post.

Claims for a penalty by the home side were then waved away by the referee and Kelly came inches from bagging his third having hit the stanchion with another rasping strike, following a free-kick from Chris Shephard.

Reid then once again tried to emulate Kelly’s first-half ex-ploits in reply, but his venomous attempt fell well wide as Cirencester pushed forward without any real gusto.

And the home side knew it was not going to be their day when midfielder Ed Williams put their best chance of the game straight down Matthews’ throat from just eight yards out.

Yetton then joined the party to make it three late on with a sublime first-time shot which ensured a job well done by the Terras.