Slough Town 2-3 Weymouth
Ash 39’, Howe 56’, Matshazi 58’, Davies 67’, Murray 88’
By Will Hickson
Weymouth grabbed their first league win of the season in dramatic fashion coming out 3-2 victors at Arbour Park. It was substitute Cam Murray’s strike that secured three points in front of the travelling fans.
It was Slough Town who started the game quicker, as in the first minute, Dan Roberts was slipped through with a ball over the top, but had a tame shot easily thwarted by Zaki Oualah. This was followed by a couple of deep throws into the box each time being cleared as the opening stages were scrappy, taking the Terras a few minutes to settle into the game.
The first real opening for the Terras was in the 5th minute, with Mitch Parker finding the run of Ahkeem Rose and getting a low shot away which was saved by Rhys Forster, however the flag went up for offside – but it was the first showing of what the frontline could do. Only a couple of minutes later Weymouth had a corner, with Dan Matsuzaka gaining some free space and meeting Parker’s cross, but glancing his header wide of the post.
Slough were making the most of their long throw specialists, crafting a great opportunity in the 18th minute after Weymouth failed to deal with the ball coming in, it fell to Johnny Goddard on the volley but he couldn’t keep the shot down, as his effort sailed over Oualah’s crossbar. Dan Roberts then does brilliantly to keep the ball in near the right hand corner flag in the 24th minute, he then pulled it back to Josh Jackman who rashly blazed the ball over. Weymouth started to take more control in the game, creating more chances in the process. In the 28th minute, Bradley Ash found Parker down the left side of the box and he fired a venomous strike towards Forster’s near post, in which the Rebels keeper pulled off a brilliant instinctive save to his right, with a little help from the post.
Then came the breakthrough, in the 38th minute Rose looked for a pass at the edge of the box and he poked it through the defence, but struck Joe Dandy’s arm on the way through resulting in a penalty for the Terras. Ash stepped up and coolly slotted the ball into the bottom right hand corner, sending the keeper the wrong way in the process and putting Weymouth in the lead at the break.
Where the first half was tight and had a lack of quality chances, the second half was anything but. Rose was threatening the Slough back line, latching onto two crosses and forcing Forster into action.
After 57 minutes, the Terras doubled their lead, winning the ball back in the middle and the quickly advancing Tom Bearwish beat the full back and whipped in an inviting cross for Rose who couldn’t reach it. Teddy Howe then collected the loose ball at the right hand corner of the box and splendidly weaved his way through a couple of defenders and arrowed the ball into the bottom left corner, giving the keeper no chance.
However, a minute later, substitute Arnold Matshazi pulled a goal back for Slough Town bringing the ball down in the box and finishing past Oualah at his near post with his first touches of the game. This got Slough’s tails up as after 61 minutes, Dan Roberts was played through one on one with Oualah, but pulled the shot wide on the stretch.
In the 66th minute, the Terras went down to 10 men, with Nathan Carlyle picking up his second yellow card of the game in quick succession, pulling back Matshazi on the edge of the box. Then, insult to injury was added for Weymouth, as Scott Davies wonderfully curled the ball over the wall and into the top corner and the game was all square.
However this didn’t halt Weymouth’s fighting spirit, as on the 71st minute, Bearwish squared the ball to Keelan O’Connell just inside the area, but his low shot was well saved and the rebound was agonisingly struck against the post from Bearwish.
The game had opened up and was now end to end, but with 87 minutes on the clock Weymouth struck gold. A long ball towards the left flank was brought down by Harry Kyprianou who cut inside and traversed across the 18-yard box. He then worked the ball well with O’Connell before the pair helped release a delightful flick through to Cam Murray who drove into the box and neatly finished past Forster into the bottom corner to send the travelling Terras fans into raptures.
Weymouth calmly saw out the four added minutes to secure a brilliant win in Berkshire, sending the Weymouth faithful home happy.
