Weymouth Women 1
Redding 42’
Weston-Super-Mare Women 1
Redding 22’, Johnson sent off 48’
South west regional women’s league division 1 south (15/12/24)
Weymouth returned to action after an enforced month long break, and they were forced to settle for a point by a tough Weston-Super-Mare side.
The Terras were missing Ellia Webb through illness. Tegan Standen and Zara Holmes remain sidelined. Mia Simpson stepped up from the development team.
Despite the long lay off, Weymouth started well. On 7 minutes Screen drove to the byline and pulled the ball back for Weaver-Coles who could only fire at the goalkeeper.
Shortly afterwards, Wilson struck the crossbar with a powerful strike from the edge of the box. The visitors counter-attacked and the resulting shot was wide.
Scarlet Paul then had a big chance when she was played through by Redding but she fired into the side netting.
At the other end, Heybourne held onto an awkward swerving strike from range, but on 22 minutes, she was beaten.
The visitors kept an attack alive and Weymouth failed to properly clear their lines a couple of times. This led to the Seagulls putting a cross in which was headed across goal into the far corner.
Weymouth responded well with Redding forcing a good save from the keeper from a tight angle, and Weaver-Coles firing wide after being played in by Screen.
Heybourne was alert to get down well to tip a low driven strike behind for a corner, before Screen fired over the bar from Roberts’ free kick.
Weymouth’s persistence paid off on 42 minutes though, with Annie Redding doing the business for her side. She had the ball on a string as she wriggled her way through half a dozen challenges before arrowing one into the top corner from the edge of the box, to send the sides in all square at the break.
Just 2 minutes after the interval, Weymouth’s hopes of victory were boosted further when Weston-Super-Mare’s Johnson was shown a straight red card for violent conduct.
The visitors responded well to losing a player though, and did a good job of frustrating the Terras and pinning them in their own half for a spell.
But as the game wore on, they naturally began to tire and Weymouth began to find spaces.
Screen attempted a spectacular overhead kick which wasn’t too far wide of the mark, as Weymouth began to apply pressure, but the ball didn’t seem to be falling for them.
Weaver-Coles dipping strike landed on the roof of the net on 83 minutes, but a couple of minutes later, the big chance Weymouth had been craving arrived.
Screen hassled a defender into an error and used her strength to hold her off and drive into the box. The keeper was covering her near post and Screen looked up to see Weaver-Coles in space on the edge of the 6 yard box with an open goal in front of her. Screen pulled it back for the home debutant, but inexplicably, she scuffed the shot wide, and the visitors no doubt breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Weymouth put a couple of crosses into the box in the dying minutes, but it wasn’t to be, and the ten women of Weston held out to take a hard-earned point home.
A positive performance – of which there was very little wrong, and Weymouth will probably feel they had the chances to win it, but they have another point on the board. The point means the Terras maintain second place in the table going into the Christmas break, before they return to action at Feniton on 5th January.
Weymouth’s development team enjoyed a 7-0 win over Bournemouth Electric, thanks to braces from Sadie Osborne, Katie Sadler and Laney Stone, along with a first Terras goal for Alara Ciftlik. They’ll also be back in action on 5th January against Sherborne reserves.
Starting xi: Heybourne, Potter, Redding, Paul, Clark, Roberts, Wilson, Weaver-Coles, Fowler, Billing, Screen.
Subs: Thornicroft, Simpson, Porter
