Weymouth 2 v 4 Paulton Rovers | 13th January 2015

The Terras made two changes from the side that secured victory over Cambridge City on Saturday.

Solitary goalscorer against the Lilywhites Tim Sills was rested, meaning winger Alec Fiddes came into the starting XI. Jordan Copp also came in at left-back to replace Jake Wannell, who ventured to Australia on Monday.

And within 90 seconds on the clock, Weymouth were caught cold.

A deflected Rovers’ shot looped over the bar for a corner, and from Branson Barnes’ delivery, Sam Teale was not tracked by the home defence, and sent a bullet header past Matthews to make it 1-0.

With the home side rattled, Rovers’ hitman Scott Wilson then had a chance to double his side’s lead.

After a deflected clearance fell to him 25-yards out, he pulled the trigger and forced a smart stop from the Weymouth player-manager, who got down well to his left to gather the attempt.

A neat one-two between Kelly and Yetton then saw the former drill the ball in towards Fiddes at the near post, but he was well challenged by a covering defender as Weymouth looked to respond quickly.

Rigg then fired out of the ground after being teed up by Kelly, and Matthews was called upon to again from a Barnes’ delivery met by Mitchell Page.

It then went from bad to worse for the home side as they lost talismanic skipper Yetton.

He went down after a clash of heads in the Rovers’ area and a stretcher was initially called for by the Weymouth physio.

But, much to the relief of the home crowd, the striker got to his feet. He was then taken to hospital and was eventually replaced by Sills.

Then, after Kelly tested Kyle Phillips in the visiting goal from all of 40 yards, Paulton should have made it 2-0.

Another Barnes through ball found his striker, who lacked composure and fired it straight at Matthews.

It was then further misery for the home side as they were reduced to 10 men before half-time.

Ashley Wells’ reckless challenge in first-half stoppage time on Mitchell Page sparked both sets of players to react, and man-in-the-middle Ron Ganfield had no choice but to send the Weymouth right-back off, leaving Rigg to fill in.

Matthews was in frantic discussion with the match official, as the home fans greeted the visiting players with fierce boos following half-time.

Cries for handball on 55 minutes then ensued as Sills knocked the ball down on to a visiting defender, but were immediately waved away.

Disaster then struck the home side as a double blast in the space of two minutes from Rovers then made it 3-0 and left the Terras shell shocked, as the writing was on the wall for the end of Weymouth’s 13-game league unbeaten run.

Barnes pounced on Rigg’s mistake to poke home a long ball forward, and he turned provider again, crossing for Page to put home the third.

Stuart Tovey was then given his second booking. Having kicked the ball away early in the second half, he then hacked down Copp to make it 10 men apiece, and Weymouth thought they had a lifeline.

Rigg’s cross was met by a sublime volley by Shephard to make it 3-1, and gave the Terras hope of grabbing a point.

But Matthews’ men were back to square one when Wilson broke the offside trap and coolly rounded the Weymouth player-manager to add a fourth on 68 minutes.

Shephard’s jinking run then almost made it a sixth goal of the night, but his effort was lifted over the crossbar, and McPhee, thrust forward up front in a bid to shake things up, also spurned a good opportunity from inside the area.

Steve Colwell added a consolation when he gathered a through ball from McPhee and bent the ball into the bottom corner, but it was to make no difference to the overall outcome, as Rovers ran out deserved 4-2 winners.