Match Preview: Weymouth v Chelmsford City – Saturday 21st January 2023
Match Sponsor: Plumbstop
The Terras are back at home at the Bob Lucas Stadium, as they take on 5th placed Chelmsford City in the latest installment of this Vanarama National League South season!
The thoughts of manager Bobby Wilkinson ahead of this afternoon’s game:
“We are prepared for this afternoon, we’re up against a very good side, it’s going to be a challenge! But this is a new football club and we have a new purpose to start believing in to take this club forward. Let’s back the boys and make some noise today!”
Wilkinson also gave a small update on injuries within the squad. He believes that Teddy Howe, Charlie Rowan and Harry Kyprianou could be out for at least a couple of months, whilst David Sesay will be out for another 4-5 weeks.
@TerraStatman’s Facts of the Match
We have played against our Essex visitors many, many times over the years since WWII and our overall record is very even with a P78 W30 D19 L29 tally and despite mixed results over the years against the Essex-based-outfit we have at least scored in our last 15 games against these visitors! Situated in the very east of the country, only Braintree and Dover Athletic have further to travel in a westerly direction to play us in 2022/23.
Our last meeting was obviously this season in our fourth game of this campaign back in August. It was our first away fixture on a very warm August day but we failed to bring any points back west, as a Blair strike just after the interval was not enough as the hosts had already scored twice by that point and went on to add a third in stoppage time. Before this campaign, the two Clarets teams last clashed in 2019. That meeting was also in August and marked our first win in five games against the clarets in a 4-1 National League South victory. Chelmsford took the lead that day, but a blistering 14-minute hat-trick around half-time from McQuoid took the game from the away side, Thompson later adding a fourth.
We first played against Chelmsford in 1948 in the 1st round proper of the FA Cup at home. 8,590 watched that game, our 6th highest home attendance in our history! We won 2-1 and our reward was a 2nd round tie against some small team near Sherborne who were sadly the cup victors in the next round…some things don’t change!
Some notable names that have played for both clubs include – Dickie Dowsett, Aaron Drewe, Ross Fitzsimons, Ron Fogg, Neil Housley, Stephen Reed & Sean Shields. There are no known players in currenty matchday squads who have played for both sides.
Fitzsimons, our goalkeeper from last season, has certainly clocked up the miles since his last game for us in May as he shortly signed a short term contract with Gibraltar-based-outfit St. Joseph’s. With the Saints, he featured in four Europa Conference League ties and played in Northern Ireland and the Czech Republic before the blues bowed out of the competition to Slavia Prague. He then went back to one of his former clubs Chesterfield.
#UpTheTerras
