Recap

Weymouth cruise past ill-tempered Crows

GOALS from Calvin Brooks, Ben Thomson and Brandon Goodship helped Weymouth ease past an ill-tempered Royston Town who were reduced to nine men after 65 minutes of their 3-0 Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division loss at the Bob Lucas Stadium.

In a match that started with the two sides well-matched, Brooks gave Weymouth an early lead in the 19th minute but Royston received their first sending off in the 28th minute with John Frendo sent off for dissent.

Thomson wrapped up the first half with a wonderful team move before Sam Gaughran delivered a bad late challenge on Baker, which saw the former sent off and the latter stretchered off. Goodship then added a third for the Terras.

Weymouth made two changes as Josh Carmichael and Abdulai Baggie, who missed the win over St Neots last week, came in for Charlie Davis and Baker.

Mark Cooper, who was on the bench during that win and has not played for Weymouth since December, was not included in the matchday squad due to illness.

Royston named an unchanged team from the side that won 4-1 away at Frome Town in their previous match.

The sides started evenly but Weymouth had an early chance when Stephane Zubar narrowly failed to find Goodship with a ball through the centre but Gus Scott-Morriss cleared.

In the seventh minute Brooks went on a superb run down the right-hand side but Daniel Braithwaite got in the way to avert the danger.

Crows’ Rohdell Gordon get down the left-hand side soon after and confidently strode into the Weymouth box but he hit his shot well over the bar.

Carmichael was then alert and prevented Scott Bridges from breaking through on the counter as he slid in with a perfectly-timed tackle.

The Crows had a superb chance, stemming from a Weymouth attack, as they broke forward quickly and Josh Castiglione fired narrowly wide from just outside the box with Will Dennis diving.

But Brooks opened the scoring when nice work from Baggie took the ball from Chappell. Baggie offloaded to Brooks who produced a confident striker’s finish into the bottom-left corner of the net.

The match then turned as Frendo was sent off in the 28th minute for Royston Town with a straight red card for dissent, as Weymouth found themselves a man up in the first half for the second consecutive game.

Not long after, Thomson got on the end of a through ball with a header but slipped when trying to get onto the ball.

However, a brilliant team move with Carmichael superbly easing through the Crows led to Thomson firing high into the net to double the lead in the 44th minute for a 2-0 half-time lead.

The second half saw Royston perk up and put some pressure on the Weymouth defence that had not had to work too hard since the sending off.

Castiglione had a good chance as he broke down the right and fired a shot into Carmichael but the Crows could not make anything from the resulting corner.

But a dreadful challenge from Gaughran ended Baker’s match two minutes after he came on for Thomson. Gaughran received a straight red card to put the Crows down to nine men while Baker had to be stretchered off the pitch and was replaced by Jordan Ngalo.

Goodship fully wrapped up the game not long after as a move started by Ngalo found the Terras’ in-form striker just inside the box, allowing him to curl a shot around Josh Tibbetts into the bottom right-hand corner.

Dennis had to be alert as the away side came very close to getting a late consolation, pouring men forward onto the line, but Dennis held on to preserve his clean sheet.

Tiago Sa nearly scored fourth as he combined well with Brooks, effortlessly cutting through the depleted Crows but a last-ditch challenge saw his shot clatter into the air and onto the bar.

Royston threatened at times late on but Weymouth held onto a convincing win – one dampened by Baker being stretchered off injured.

Weymouth are next in action when they travel to rivals Hereford in a clash of two of the top three sides.