Match Preview: Weymouth vs Solihull Moors – Saturday 30th April 2022 – 15:00
Weymouth take on play-off hopefuls Solihull Moors at the Bob Lucas Stadium tomorrow afternoon in the Vanarama National League.
THE TERRAS
A bitterly disappointing outcome to Tuesday night’s fixture against promotion hunting Wrexham at the Bob Lucas Stadium. Despite Tom Bearwish’s first half strike giving the Terras the lead into the break, Phil Parkinson’s side humbled Weymouth in the second half, showing their quality by scoring six goals, which ultimately condemned the Terras to relegation from the National League. With all concerned obviously downbeat following events on Tuesday, it does however take some pressure off of the team already knowing their fate. This means Weymouth can head into the final four games of the season, looking to finish on a high for the fans who deserve some good performances in response to their fantastic support in recent times.
Manager David Oldfield spoke to us ahead of tomorrow’s game:
“We have had a big blow this week, with fate catching up with us. But the players trained well last night and we know there is a big match ahead of us. Solihull have been very good this season and will be close come the end of the season. We will learn a huge amount about ourselves this weekend and with the Southend match coming so quickly afterwards.”
LAST SIX
TERRAS 1-6 WREXHAM
NOTTS COUNTY 3-1 TERRAS
TERRAS 0-0 YEOVIL TOWN
MAIDENHEAD UNITED 2-0 TERRAS
TERRAS 0-0 GRIMSBY TOWN
TORQUAY 3-0 TERRAS
Weymouth currently sit 22nd in the table with 24 points from 40 games
THE MOORS
Neal Ardley’s Moors side currently sit inside the play-off places and have firm eyes on finishing the season as strong as possible in order to secure a play-off place, for a chance to reach the Football League. They’ve have only lost one game in their previous 18 league matches, with that defeat coming against Stockport County on Easter Monday, where they lost 1-0 at Edgeley Park. Solihull also reached the FA Trophy quarter final, however they were beaten 3-1 to finalists Bromley. The Moors are currently the fifth best away side in the league with 9 wins, 7 draws and 4 defeats away from home and have the joint second best defensive away record in the division alongside Chesterfield, with Stockport only letting in a goal less. It’s set to be a huge challenge for Weymouth, but one they will relish given the result of the reverse fixture which saw Weymouth beat Solihull Moors by 4 goals to 3, in one of the most memorable games of this season’s campaign for the Terras.
Player To Watch: Andy Dallas
There’s no doubt that on his return to the Bob Lucas Stadium following his loan spell last season at Weymouth that Andy Dallas will be the man to watch. He has scored an impressive 17 goals so far this league campaign and will be an important man for Solihull Moors not just in this fixture, but in future games, especially if they secure a play-off spot.
LAST SIX
SOLIHULL MOORS 2-1 ALDERSHOT TOWN
STOCKPORT COUNTY 1-0 SOLIHULL MOORS
WREXHAM 1-1 SOLIHULL MOORS
BARNET 0-2 SOLIHULL MOORS
FC HALIFAX TOWN 0-0 SOLIHULL MOORS
SOLIHULL MOORS 3-1 MAIDENHEAD UNITED
Solihull Moors currently sit 4th in the league with 75 points from 40 games.
@TerraStatman’s Facts of the Match
“Honours even against tomorrow’s visitors with one win apiece and a draw in our meetings over the last two seasons in the league. An initial 0-0 home draw in February ’21 was following up by a 1-2 loss in the West Midlands with McQuoid bagging our consolation goal. This season, in what feels like a lifetime ago, we visited The Moors in our fourth league game of the season to win a fantastic barnstorming affair 4-3! That game was the only time we have scored thrice before the break in the last two seasons and only the fourth occasion we have been involved in a game with 7 or more goals in three seasons.
Technically we did not play this club before last season but we have played both the parent clubs that went into the merger to form the current club – In 1992/93 we endured a pair of losses in the Southern League Premier against Solihull Borough but we fared much better against the other “parent club” Moor Green as over eight campaigns from 1989 to 2005 we enjoyed 7 wins, 4 draws and 5 losses. (Striker Lee Phillips in particular used to look forward to games against that Birmingham-based-outfit, plundering no less than 7 goals in his last 5 outings against them.) If we add all games against new and old together our overall is 8 wins and 8 losses, very much warranting a “coin toss” determination!
The stellar list of known players who have turned out for both teams are Carly Adams and Ray Grant …And that’s all folks! Surprising but I guess due to distance and Moor Green and Solihull Borough traditionally being lower down the footballing pyramid, the chances of a player historically turning out for Weymouth and any incarnation of our West Midlands opponents is slight.
Carly Adams is a notable name for Weymouth if only for the fact that alphabetically he is the very first name on my post-war players spreadsheet, topping the list of the 1,227 men to have turned out competitively for the club since World War II. Carly played 21 games for us back in 1993/94 before going on to play indoor soccer in America for San Jose Grizzlies and the Sacramento Knights.
The only other name on the list is Ray Grant, who played for the team back in the late 1940’s but only passed away in Weymouth in 2016 at the age of 91. Ray was born in Bournville in Birmingham and at the age of 14 followed in his father’s footsteps at…you’ve guessed it…the Cadbury’s chocolate factory. He went into the navy at 18 in the midst of WWII and when the war finished, he went to visit his parents who were on holiday in a Weymouth guest house. There he met his future wife and as a talented footballer decided to stay and sign up to the local football team. The rest is history as they say and he made his name scoring the winner in the 1948 Dorset Senior Cup final and went on to play 45 times over 4 seasons, combining his playing time with his job as a local police sergeant.”
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