Dorchester Town 0 v 3 Weymouth | 26th December 2014

Terras too good for Magpies in Boxing Day derby
By Dan Rose

Yetton added another penalty three minutes from time before Tim Sills headed in the visitors’ third.

Victory for the Terras saw them complete an Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division double over their neighbours – they also beat the county town side in this season’s Red Insure Cup.

Alan Walker-Harris and Dan Smith missed out on places in the matchday squad altogether, Connor Doe dropped to the bench and loanee Robbie Matthews had gone back to parent club Gosport Borough following the defeat at Slough.

Shane Murphy stepped up to play in goal, Dan Woodward, dual registered with Gosport, came straight into the side, Jake Smeeton made a long-awaited comeback from a hamstring injury, while Andy Robinson returned after injury as well.

The Dorchester bench also had a different look to it, with Danny Way and former Magpies’ midfielder Dave Allen added to the squad for the derby.

Nathan Walker wasn’t fit enough to return due to a bad back so Matt Oldring and Chris Dillon were the centre-back pairing for the second game running.

As for Weymouth, the only change from the team that beat Biggleswade saw Sills come in for Steve Colwell, who was among the substitutes.

With the changes Magpies’ boss Graham Kemp had made to his starting line up, it was always going to be interesting to see how the hosts would adapt, and in such a big fixture too.

The boggy Avenue pitch was never going to make the game the most attractive for the bumper crowd, but that’s not to say that the two teams didn’t try and play some football when they could.

Things were quite cagey to start with but the Terras should have been ahead in the 13th minute, only for a linesman’s flag to come to Dorchester’s rescue.

Shephard’s free-kick was met on the head by Calvin Brooks, Murphy pulled off a superb save to tip the defender’s effort on to the bar and George Rigg tapped the ball in after it had been fired towards goal by a team-mate.

However, Rigg was given offside, though his side would have gone 1-0 up if he hadn’t touched the ball.

Weymouth threatened again soon after when Sills glanced a header just over, and at the other end a bit of space opened up for Sam Lanahan to shoot but his attempt sailed into the fans behind Jason Matthews’ goal.

By the half hour mark it was abundantly clear just how much the playing surface was going to test the fitness of both sets of players – it was particularly difficult for those carrying knocks and niggles.

But Shephard was one man who seemed to be enjoying the elements and he was giving debutant Woodward a tough time of it on the left wing.

Woodward had the distinction of being the first name to go in referee Andrew Bennett’s notebook on 34 minutes when he hauled down Shephard.

Not a minute later, Jake Wannell was cautioned for a deliberate handball.

Weymouth then had appeals for a penalty waved away after Shephard had blasted the ball at Lanahan who had no chance of getting his hand out of the way.

The sides went into half-time at 0-0 but it was the Terras, the more dominant side in the first period, who could so easily have gone in leading.

They had another effort disallowed for offside in the 45th minute when Sills headed in a Shephard free-kick.

And it didn’t take long for Shephard to be involved again early in the second half, the winger beating Dillon and crossing for Yetton who fired over.

It had been a very quiet afternoon up until that point for Yetton, though a lot of that was down to the likes of Smeeton, who was performing well considering how much football he had missed through injury.

Terras’ player-manager Matthews then made a somewhat unconventional save to keep out Robinson’s effort.

As the rain lashed down and the pitch became even muddier, Jack Odam headed a Mason Walsh cross straight at Matthews before Sills went close from the edge of the Dorchester box.

The Magpies were having their best spell of the match when, from out of very little, Weymouth took the lead.

Kelly drew a foul from Oldring just inside the area and Yetton calmly slotted the spot-kick having missed his last one against Biggleswade.

It could have been game over a few minutes later when Sills put Shephard clean through, but his shot was smothered by Murphy.

With Dorchester trying their utmost to find an equaliser from somewhere there was always a chance of a second for the visitors, and a towering header from Jamie Laird was almost turned in by McPhee.

Then, with three minutes of the 90 remaining, Smeeton clattered into McPhee just inside the Dorchester box and Yetton, again, scored from the spot, albeit with a strike that crawled its way into the net.

And salt was rubbed into the Magpies’ wounds on 89 minutes when Shephard’s cross to the back post was headed in by Sills.

McPhee might have got a fourth had Murphy not produced a smart save to push the ball out for a corner.