Duncan Gardner shares his latest edition of Facts of the Match ahead of tonight’s game against Chippenham Town.
Today will be the 50th meeting between the sides including friendlies. And over that time, since the first meeting in 1930, we’ve had the vast majority of the rub of the green, with 27 wins to just 14 losses and the 8 draws. However, the Hardenhuish Park based outfit have not had their chips in the recent times with the Terras just picking up one win and two draws in the last seven encounters stretching back to 2015.
The last time these two teams locked horns was in Wiltshire in August 2019. It was matchday six of the National League South playoff winning campaign when the hosts took all three points with the only goal of the game just before the interval. Of the 14 players who featured for Weymouth that day, only Cam Murray is still registered at the club although he is currently on loan at Poole Town.
Looking back through time, we next cross paths with the Blues in 2017 – Charlie Davis & Mark Cooper dispatching the away side 2-0 with progression to the third qualifying round of the FA Cup the prize. However that was the win that proceeded a rather barren run against this team. Two Southern League games in 2016/17 were a pair of losses and we only fared marginally better the previous season with two draws. 2014/15 witnessed a win apiece in the league as did 2012/13 but we did go one better in 2011/12 as three points again were banked by both blues and clarets but we also vanquished our foes in the FA Trophy 2-1 to go into the hat for the last 32 of the competition. Dusting off the annuls shows the 1930’s to be the happiest time as a Weymouth fan though against this pub-lunch-sounding club with no less than 11 wins from 12 over that period!
Many players have featured for both teams over the decades but the most famous and recent include: Brad Ash, Harvey Bunker, Matt Buse, Dean Evans, Jason Matthews, Lee Phillips, George Rigg, Alefe Santos, Scott Walker & Tom Whelan.
Our recent record against teams from the county of Wiltshire is very good with only the aforementioned most recent game against today’s opponents featuring in the “loss” column in the last seven encounters. Swindon Town were the last Wiltshire team we faced (if you county their ceremonial county background), a fine 1-0 friendly win in the summer of 2021 against the Football League side. The rest of the septet of games features two wins against one of the many incarnations of “Salisbury FC” (including the famous 4-3 away win) and four points in a brace of games against Swindon Supermarine as well as the home tie v Chippenham in the FA Cup.
