Weymouth Women 1st v Poole Town Ladies

Hunt 10′ Roberts 56′

Poole Town Ladies 3
Marshallsay 23′ Kemp 45+3′ McCombie 52′

South West Women’s League East Division (24/09/23)

A stunning second half free kick from Lucy Roberts wasn’t enough to prevent Weymouth’s first loss of the season, in a 5 goal thriller against Poole Town.

The Terras were missing captain Charlie Wilson through injury, and their preperations were hampered further on the morning of the game when they lost Jody Sapsford and Gracie Billing to illness. That meant a late call up from the development team for Sofia O’Connell for her first team debut, whilst Lucy Roberts was pushed forward into midfield to partner Annie Redding.

Despite the changes, the Terras got off to a strong start, and they deservedly took the lead 10 minutes in. Annie Redding picked the ball up in space and played a perfect ball into the channel for Zara Hunt to latch onto. She out-paced the full back and slotted the ball past the goakeeper into the top right corner.

Hunt could have had a second in almost identical fashion shortly afterwards when she latched onto Teegan Standen’s through ball, but this time she was forced wide and dragged her shot just wide of the post.

Poole equalised on 23 minutes somewhat against the run of play, when Marshallsay took advantage of a fumble from Marquis to restore parity.

Weymouth’s heads didn’t drop though and they continued to create chances. Sophie Perry was played in by Redding but her shot was well held by the goalkeeper.

Poole counter attacked a minute later and looked to be in, but a heroic last ditch tackle from Emma Potter thwarted Poole.

On 39 minutes, Kaydee Thornicroft forced the Poole full back into a mistake but could only find the side netting with her curling shot, before Redding teed up Roberts who fired over the bar from around 25 yards.

Then it was Poole’s turn to threaten just before the break, as they stuck the crossbar with a free kick before Weymouth scrambled the ball to safety.

Unfurtnately for Weymouth, the reprieve was short lived, as 3 minutes into injury time, another free kick into the box was parried by Marquis straight into the path of Kemp who made no mistake from close range, to leave Weymouth with work to do in the second half.

Kate Chard – a new signing from Pen Mill, took over between the sticks for the second half, and one of the first jobs she had to do was pick the ball out of the net, as despite a positive start to the second half, Weymouth were caught out by a long ball in behind the defence, and McCombie lobbed it over the onrushing Chard to make it 3-1 on 52 minutes.

The Terras responded well again though. Zara Hunt was causing the Poole defence plenty of headaches, and she was sent clean through on goal before being cynically hacked down on the edge of the D.

Weymouth were aggrieved to see only a yellow card produced, but Lucy Roberts dispatched the resulting free kick into the top corner of the net to get Weymouth back into the game.

The game turned into a real scrap from then on with lots of niggly fouls and stoppages for injuries. Weymouth pushed hard but Poole defended doggedly, and despite their best efforts, the Terras were unable to find an equaliser, and Poole held on to maintain their 100% winning start to the season, and inflict Weymouth’s first loss of the season.

A frustrating defeat to take, but plenty of positives for the Terras who gave as good as they got against a strong Poole side who will be aiming for the league title.

Next up is a trip to step 5 Sherborne Town in the FA Cup.

There was also a narrow defeat for Weymouth’s development team, who came out on the wrong side of a 7 goal thriller away at Merley Cobham Sports in the Dorset League. Two goals fom Emily Screen and a goal from Laura Seymour couldn’t prevent a 4-3 loss, but it was a much improved performance from the developmen team after a difficult day at Longfleet last time out.

The development team host Poole Reserves next week.

First Team Starting XI: Marquis, Potter, Standen, Ellis, Hunt, Clark, Redding, Randall, Roberts, Webb, O’Connell. Subs: Perry, Thornicroft, Chard

First team player of the match: Annie Redding & Zara Hunt

Development team player of the match: Lily Dowdell