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Evans and Copp strike for Weymouth in trophy victory
WEYMOUTH had to come from a goal down to beat Winchester City in the first qualifying round of the FA Trophy tonight.
Warren Bentley put the hosts ahead on the half hour at the Denplan County Ground before Dean Evans and Jordan Copp struck after the break to win it for the visitors.
The home side were reduced to 10 men in the dying seconds when defender Danny King was dismissed.
As Terras’ boss Jason Matthews had feared, Jake Wannell’s hamstring injury kept him out of the tie while Chris Shephard, absent from Wednesday’s draw at Frome through illness, was missing again.
Ashley Wells and Billy Lowes earned starts, Ben Thomson returned to the side, and Tim Sills and Chris McPhee dropped to the bench.
Tonight’s clash got off to a frantic start and Weymouth passed the ball around nicely in the opening stages.
However, it was City’s Rob Flooks who nearly got the first goal of the contest when he headed over.
At the other end, the visitors weren’t really able to test home keeper Brendon Norris, with Adam Kelly firing well wide and Thomson going close but not finding the target.
Weymouth knew all about Bentley’s potency in the final third going into the match, but they couldn’t prevent him stabbing in from close range 30 minutes in.
The Terras hit back and Copp’s free-kick was kept out by Norris, who then held Kelly’s curling effort.
There was also time just before the break for the visitors to have a big penalty shout turned down.
While they may have felt hard done by not to be awarded a spot-kick, the Terras made the best possible start to the second half.
Weymouth caught the hosts cold seconds after the restart with Evans on hand to make it 1-1.
Both sides could then have gone ahead, Matthews making a superb double save to deny Winchester and Norris stopping a Stewart Yetton effort.
It was only a matter of time before another goal arrived and fortunately for the Terras they got it, Copp finding a way past Norris to turn the tie on its head.
And Copp went agonisingly close to netting again minutes later, only for the crossbar to come to City’s rescue.
Winchester searched desperately for an equaliser late on but all they did manage was a red card for King.
