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Palmer’s scorcher earns cup victory for Terras
By David Williams
| ED Palmer’s howitzer sent the Terras through to the second round of the Red Insure Cup last night at the expense of rivals Dorchester Town.The defender scored what proved to be the winning goal after the Magpies had twice come from behind.
Callum Laird opened the scoring for the hosts but his effort was cancelled out by Jack Odam, who was making his debut for the Avenue outfit. Jamie Beasley restored the Terras’ advantage before the break, but Dan Smith equalised from the penalty spot after the interval. However, victory for Jason Matthews’ men was sealed when Palmer let fly from distance. As expected, both sides made a number of changes in personnel following their FA Cup triumphs at the weekend. Only player-manager Matthews and Jordan Copp kept their places in the Terras’ starting line-up. Sam Poole was back after injury and captained the hosts with Stewart Yetton on the bench. Also included in the Weymouth side were Gareth Will and Beasley from the reserves. Four of the Dorchester side that began last Saturday’s win over Hendon started again last night. Jamie Gleeson returned to captain the side and there was also a debut for new signing Odam. The early attempts on target came from the visitors through Smith and Jason Brookes but they were comfortably taken by Matthews. At the other end, a Beasley piledriver was superbly tipped on to a post by Shane Murphy on 14 minutes, and the keeper needed to be on his toes to push away a Luke Winsper effort. However, the Dorchester stopper was beaten from the resulting corner as Laird rose highest to head in. It could have been 2-0 when Murphy came out for a long ball only to be beaten to it by Conor Jevon, though his looping effort landed on the roof of the net. Will then put a half-chance over the bar from close range before the Magpies equalised 26 minutes in. Brookes didn’t give up on a misplaced pass heading for the corner flag and, when his pull back was fired into the box, Odam reacted quickly to steer the ball in off the far post. Dorchester were level but they were continuing to have problems at set-pieces and a Poole header was hacked off the line. A few minutes later, and after Murphy had turned a Will shot out for a corner, Laird also had a goal-bound header blocked. Weymouth did regain the lead on 40 minutes and it was former Magpies’ wideman Beasley who got the goal. A move involving Will and Jamie West ended with Beasley cutting inside a defender and lashing the ball past Murphy. Both Matthews and counterpart Graham Kemp made changes at half-time, with Dorchester old boy Calvin Brooks replacing Poole for the home side and Brookes making way for Micky Hubbard in the visitors’ ranks. The second half was 10 minutes old when Dorchester got themselves level again, and this time two ex-Terras played important roles in making it 2-2. One of the referee’s assistants also had a big say in the goal as he flagged for a foul on Joyce in the Terras’ box that led to Smith making no mistake from the spot. However, some two minutes later and the home fans had reason to cheer. Picking up the ball at least 30 yards out, Palmer stepped forward and drilled a thunderous low drive past Murphy. The Dorchester keeper then did well to prevent a fourth for the hosts, parrying a Beasley shot that deflected off Matt Oldring. As the county town side looked for a third equaliser, Kemp brought on Nathan Walker and Weymouth introduced Sam Nichols and Adam Kelly. The visitors’ best hope of another comeback appeared to be through the lively Smith, while Joyce went close to making it 3-3 with an angled drive that flew inches wide seven minutes from the end. Substitute Kelly almost put the game beyond Dorchester mom-ents later. He was found by Beasley and a right-footed effort deflected off a defender for a corner. From that Beasley had a wild swing at the ball but could only send it high and wide. A last throw of the dice for Dorchester saw them swap Oldring for youngster Lewis Brown and go to three at the back, but it was all too late as the Terras progressed to round two.
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