Bath City v Weymouth Women 1st

Recap

Bath City 3

Goater 19’ Bellotti 34’ 90+4’

Weymouth 3

Webb 14’ Hunt 54’ Wilson 74’

South West Women’s League East Division (03/09/23)

Attendance 175

Terras share the points in 6 goal thriller

Weymouth’s Women were forced to settle for a point in their opening game of the new season, after Bath City netted a stoppage time equaliser at Twerton Park. 

It’s been a busy summer for WFCW and there were 5 debutants in their squad, as Renee Marquis, Tegen-Lee Standen, Bianca Randall, Sophie Perry and Ellia Webb all made their first competitive appearances for the Terras.

On a sweltering afternoon, Weymouth made a bright start, with Bianca Randall having an early effort fumbled by the home goalkeeper.

3 minutes later, it was the woodwork which denied Weymouth, as Ellia Webb skipped past the full back and got to the byline. She dug out a cross which was met by Hunt, and her header bounced off the top off the crossbar and back out to her, but she could only fire the follow up over the bar.

Weymouth didn’t have to wait much longer for their opener though, as on 14 minutes, skipper Charlie Wilson played a perfect through-ball to Ellia Webb, and the young striker showed composure beyond her years to dink the ball over the goalkeeper to give the Terras the lead.

Newly promoted Bath were not letting Weymouth have things all their own way though, and just 5 minutes later they were back on level terms, as Goater took advantage of a fumble from Marquis to fire home the equaliser.

That gave Bath a big lift, and with a vocal home crowd behind them, they visibly began to grow in confidence. On 25 minutes they had another shot from the edge of the box that went narrowly wide, but they did take the lead just after the half hour mark. 

Bellotti’s free kick from some 35 yards which miss-judged by Marquis, and the ball evaded everyone to go into the back of the net.

City’s tails were up, and they came close to adding a third before the break, but Gray’s header from Bellotti’s corner drifted just wide.

Laura Seymour came close to an equaliser just before the break. Her effort from 25 yards had the City goalkeeper scrambling across her goal, but she was able to breath a sigh of relief as it rolled just the wrong side of the post.

Whatever was said in the Terras’ dressing room at half time, it had the desired effect, as they made a strong start to the second half.

They were pressing City high up the pitch, and it very nearly paid off when Zara Hunt forced a defender into a mistake, and Sophie Perry’s shot from around 20 yards flew narrowly over the crossbar.

But on 54 minutes, Weymouth had their equaliser, and it came from easily their best move of the game. It all started with a short pass out fro Marquis, and within 6 passes, Charlie Wilson received it in space in the middle, and played a wonderful defence splitting pass into the path of Zara Hunt. She held off the attentions of a recovery defender to get her shot away, and the ball struck the inside of the post before rolling along the goal line, and eventually, rolling over the line, to make it 2-2.

The game became quite frantic, as both teams seemed to sense that the game was there to be won.

Terras goalkeeper Renee Marquis made up for her first half mistakes – tipping a free kick over the bar for a corner, and then making a wonderful reaction save to palm a stinging drive away for a corner on 67 minutes. 

Having set the first two up, it was captain Wilson’s turn to get on the scoresheet on 74 minutes, as she latched onto Annie Redding’s through-ball to fire beyond the City keeper to put Weymouth back in front.

City went hell for leather in the last 10 minutes and threw everything at the Terras defence. As the clock ticked into added time, Renee Marquis was on hand to make what looked like a match winning save. A Bath corner fell to their striker who took a touch and smashed a powerful strike goalwards, but somehow Marquis got a strong hand to it to turn it behind. 

It was looking like Weymouth would get over the line, but in the 4th minute of injury time, Bath were awarded a free kick right on the edge of the D for an adjudged handball. 

Bellotti had been a thorn in the Terras side all afternoon with her set pieces, and rather predictably, she made no mistake with the free kick – hitting an unstopptable strike that flew straight into the top corner of the net, giving Marquis no chance, and earning City a share of the points with what proved to be the last kick of the match.

It was a wonderfully entertaining match which none of the 175 in attendance could have failed to enjoy, although dropping 2 points so late was gut-wrenching for Weymouth.

Despite the disappointment, the Terras will take plenty of positives from this game, and a point on the road to start the season is certainly not to be sniffed at. It gives them something to build on, and they’ll look to push on from this result when they travel to Basingstoke Town in the FA cup next Sunday.

Weymouth’s Development team suffered a tough start to their Dorset Women’s league season, going down 9-3 to Dorchester Town, despite a second half hat-trick from Kaydee Thorncroft. They host Longham next weekend. 

First team player of the match – Tegen-Lee Standen

Development team player of the match – Sophia O’Connell