Terras beat local rivals to extend winning run
Summary:
Weymouth’s resurgence under Jamie Wells continued on Saturday with an impressive two-goal victory over Poole Town at the Bob Lucas Stadium. An early goal from Brandon Goodship put them in the driving seat and another penalty save from Max Evans helped them maintain that advantage. A much-changed defensive line held out for the clean sheet, while Barney Stone added some gloss to the scoreline with a fantastic strike a few minutes before time.
Match Report:
Poole Town arrived at the Bob Lucas Stadium full of confidence, sitting in second place in the league table and having beaten the leaders Walton & Hersham in their previous game. Meanwhile Jamie Wells was forced into making several changes to his defence, with Calvin Brooks having picked up an injury and Evan Watt heading back to the US. This meant the versatile Pollock shifting across to centre-back, while new signing Harry Hutchinson came straight into the team alongside him and Genesini returned from injury at left wing-back.
The Terras got off to a great start and found themselves ahead within six minutes. Burrows won the ball in the Poole half and it ran through to Stone who took it up the right wing and passed to Bearwish. He drove towards the byline before squaring the ball to Goodship in the middle of the box who struck his first-time shot past Parkes to score his 8th goal in the last 7 games.
The Dolphins had a great chance to restore parity 10 minutes later when they were awarded a penalty after Gwengwe fell to the floor in the area under minimal contact from Douglas. The Poole striker took the penalty himself but, in a repeat of his heroics at Dorchester, Evans got down to his right to make the save. The ball fell loose and Gwengwe followed up but his second effort came back off the post as home fans breathed a sigh of relief.
There were few clear chances for the remainder of the first half. Poole got into some good areas but never really tested Evans through a combination of poor shooting and great closing down by the Weymouth players.
Stone had a great opportunity to double Weymouth’s lead at the start of the second half when he intercepted a weak pass from Campbell and ran through on goal, but Parkes did well to rush out and smother the shot. Poole had a shout for a penalty when Saied’s shot hit Robinson’s arm in front of his body, but nothing was given by the referee.
Poole pressed for the equalizer and continued to get the ball into Weymouth’s area but mostly lacked the quality to carve out real chances. One exception was a lovely backheel from Saied to release Carr in the box, but Evans got down well to save his low effort. A little later the ball fell to McCormick with space in the Weymouth area, but Pollock reacted like lightning to close down his shot.
The Terras were working really hard and were able to break up the game by winning free kicks in the Poole half, with Pollock and Douglas both getting headers on goal as a result but failing to find the target. Then 3 minutes from time, Goodship picked up the ball deep in his own half, spotted Reid spin off his marker on the halfway line and played a great ball out to the right wing for him to hold up. Reid took his time, drew in the defenders, and rolled the ball into the path of Stone who hit a screamer from the edge of the box into the top left corner.
That secured the victory and extende the team’s record under Jamie Wells to 13 points from 6 games, four wins in a row in all competitions, and the bonus of recording their first clean sheet since November.
Reaction:
Speaking to Radio Terras after the game, Jamie Wells said “I think it was a deserved win and I’m really pleased with it”. Asked about the current run of form, he added “credit goes to the lads … they’re giving everything … it’s all starting to come together nicely for us”. He gave special praise for Euan Pollock’s performance at centre-back, saying “he can play anywhere and do anything we ask of him … he was immense today”.
Despite the win, Weymouth remain in 16th place after the teams around them also won, but the gap to the bottom four has extended to 4 points. After beating the league’s top two teams in recent weeks, the Terras now travel to third-placed Gloucester City where they will need to maintain the same levels to extend their run.
Lineups:
Terras: Evans; Betts, Douglas, Pollock, Hutchinson, Genesini; Burrows (Reid, 62), Robinson, Bearwish, Goodship (Moss, 90); Stone (Stavrianos, 94)
Subs not used: Alfie Robinson
Goals: Goodship (6), Stone (87)
Dolphins: Parkes; R. Campbell, Lowes, Davis (Slade, 57), Gwengwe, Hill, Carr (McCormick, 83), Saied, Jordan, Dore, Spalding (K. Campbell, 57)
Subs not used: Olumuyiwa, Whisken
Attendance: 1,769
Media:
Watch Jamie Wells’ post-match interview here:
Scroll through the match photos here: 31-Jan-2026 Weymouth vs Poole Town | Flickr
Check out the video highlights here: HIGHLIGHTS | Weymouth 2-0 Poole Town
Match Report by Ian Middlebrook
