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Weymouth crushed by ruthless Steelmen
By Dan Rose
| IT was doom and gloom for the Terras again as rampant Corby Town surged to victory with relative ease at Steel Park.The result leaves Weymouth’s title challenge hanging by a thread as they now sit five points behind league leaders Poole Town, having played three games more than the Dolphins, with the Steelmen on the charge a point below them in the standings with a game in hand.
The Terras made four changes as manager Jason Matthews shuffled his pack from the side that drew with Redditch United on Saturday. Adam Kelly, Steve Colwell and Tim Sills were recalled as well as full-back Neil Martin being handed his debut for the club, following his switch from Poole this week. That meant that Jamie Laird, Alec Fiddes and George Rigg dropped out of the XI along with Jamie Reid, whose loan spell from Exeter City ended at the weekend with Connor Riley-Lowe. Reid has since joined Torquay United on loan. And after an early chance for the Steelmen, it only took them four minutes to take the lead. A speculative effort from Greg Mills was tipped onto a post by player-manager Matthews, and former Nottingham Forest man Spencer Weir-Daley, who ran riot throughout the contest, was on hand to gamble on the follow up and was presented with the easiest of tap-ins to draw first blood. Kelly then tried his luck for the away side with the Terras’ first shot of the game as they tried to weather the storm, but the attempt on goal fell wide of the mark. Playmaker Chris Shephard’s free-kick then caused the hosts problems as it just evaded Sills, but moments later, a mix up between Calvin Brooks and Ashley Wells let Corby’s Mills clean through on goal. With the rest of his team-mates helpless, only a top-drawer save from boss Matthews stopped the Steelmen adding a second on 15 minutes. A good move from Shephard and Kelly then saw the former slide the ball across the six-yard box, which just evaded the onrushing Sills and was deflected behind. Midfielder Chris McPhee was then cautioned in a spell of play where the Steelmen should have gone 2-0 in front. After the Weymouth player-coach conceded the foul, a free-kick from Stephan Morley was parried away by goalkeeper Matthews, and on the follow-up, Shane Byrne blazed the ball over the top from close range. Corby’s Paul Malone then required a stretcher as he put himself on the line to thwart a Terras’ attack, and was replaced by Edi Appleton after a lengthy delay. Skipper Cleveland Taylor also helped his team-mate off the field with the medical staff, for what was a suspected broken leg. Mills was then denied by Matthews once more after a neat ball through from Carvalho, who continued to cause problems, as Weymouth soaked up heavy pressure. A bitter blow was then dealt by the Steelmen just short of half-time. From a vicious free-kick, this time, Taylor was on hand to knock home the rebound past a helpless Matthews moments before the interval. But soon after the restart, the away side found a response through experienced marksman Sills, who scored the Terras’ first away goal of 2015. He nodded the ball home after Corby keeper Paul Walker flapped at a cross into the area. The reduced deficit was short-lived however, as Corby re-gained their two-goal lead a minute later from the penalty spot. Mills put the spot-kick away after he was brought down in the area by a combination of Ashley Wells and Calvin Brooks. It then got worse for the home side as Weir-Daley bagged his second to make it 4-1. He beat the offside trap to put the ball into the back of the net on 58 minutes with Weymouth in disarray. Sills then volleyed over the top before the visitors added a fifth and Weir-Daley completed his hat-trick. He latched on to the end of a menacing ball in from the lively Carvalho, to succumb the Terras to their fourth straight defeat on the road since the turn of the year.
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