Brilliant Brandon Goodship sees off Merthyr Town

WEYMOUTH 3

Goodship 40pen, 53, 87

MERTHYR TOWN 2

Traylor 25, Richards 63

WEYMOUTH left it late to record their fifth consecutive Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division win after Brandon Goodship struck a superb hat-trick.

Merthyr opened the scoring through Ian Traylor before a Goodship penalty levelled the scores at half-time.

Goodship scored his second 10 minutes before a sublime Eliot Richards strike made it 2-2.

But Goodship got his third on 87 minutes to seal a crucial win for Mark Molesley’s side.

Weymouth manager Molesley made three changes to the side that began the 2-1 win at St Neots, with Toby Down, Ben Thomson, Josh Wakefield replacing Harry Baker, Matt Tubbs and Mark Cooper – who missed out from the squad completely.

On the Terras’ bench there were places for Tiago Sa, Jordan Seabright and Sean Stewart, who returned from a one-match ban, alongside Baker and Tubbs.

There was also a familiar face in the Merthyr Town side as Stuart Fleetwood came back to the Bob Lucas after leaving the Terras in the summer following a season in which the striker scored 17 goals in 31 games.

And it was Fleetwood’s new team that began the brighter as they grasped much of the early possession however, but for two speculative efforts, they had nothing to show for their early promise.

But on 25 minutes, they benefitted from a generous piece of defending from Ashley Wells.

As Merthyr launched a long ball forwards there looked to be little danger but Wells miscontrolled the ball straight into the path of Traylor, who ran through and goal and hoicked a shot over the advancing Mark Travers from 20 yards to give the Martyrs the lead.

In truth, it was a sloppy start from Weymouth and things did not improve for the hosts thanks to a careless backheel from Callum Buckley.

Buckley passed blindly to Fleetwood, presenting Merthyr with a two-on-one situation and the striker fed Traylor down the right.

Traylor’s cross was just too long but the visitors recycled the ball and Terras’ captain Jake McCarthy was booked for bringing down left-back Curtis McDonald.

Weymouth equalised on 40 minutes via the penalty spot as they finally built up a head of steam. Brooks was picked out on the right and he beat two defenders before McDonald tugged him back in the area, with referee Scott Robinson pointing to the spot.

Up stepped Goodship to slam home his first of the night in confident fashion to make it 1-1 at half-time.

Eight minutes after the break, Goodship grabbed his second after controlling the ball 25 yards out, skirting around the Merthyr defence and firing home past Oliver Davies.

Weymouth had the lead for just 10 minutes after a blockbuster strike from Eliot Richards.

Fleetwood was sent down the right and struck a powerful shot at Terras’ goalkeeper Mark Travers from a very acute angle, but the ball fell straight to Richards who lashed home inside the angle of post and bar from wide on the right, fully 30 yards out.

Weymouth pressed for a winner in the closing stages and Goodship was unlucky not to score his treble when a deflected shot slammed against the far post.

But the striker got the hat-trick his superb individual display merited when substitute Matt Tubbs chested the ball for the striker to slot home from 10 yards and send the Bob Lucas faithful into raptures three minutes from time.

Terras: Travers, Brooks, Buckley, Wells, Down, Carmichael, Davis, McCarthy, Thomson (Baker 70), Goodship, Wakefield (Tubbs 70). Subs not used: Sa, Seabright, S Stewart

Merthyr: O Davies, A Davies, McDonald, Evans (Copp 88), Wright, R Patten, Jenkins, K Patten, Fleetwood (Touray 82), Richards, Traylor (Morgan 68). Subs not used: Bowen, Tancock

Referee: Scott Robinson (Barnstaple)

Attendance: 527