Hawks' Hambley Humbles Hosts
by Steve Dadd & Pete Pavey

7th October 2001

Weymouth entertained top of the table Havant and Waterlooville at a bright but breezy Wessex Stadium this afternoon. With only Ryan Cross unavailable, due to a virus, Andy Mason had a glut of players to choose from. New boy Kevin Parker, along with Michael Dean and Matthew Hale, kept Fred and Andy company on the bench.

Weymouth got into their stride straight away playing the ball round on the deck in the windy conditions, the Rowbotham duo combined well in the opening stages and set up David Laws, his blistering shot on 7 minutes was acrobatically saved by Nicholls in the H&W goal. Havant had a golden scoring chance minutes later when leading scorer Taylor headed wide from a Blake cross.

Nicholls was in the thick of it again to deny Rowbo, but the goal would not have counted as flag happy referee's assistant Blatchford from Yeovil (where else) set out his stall.

Laws, Phillips and Robinson were further denied legitimate attempts due to Blatchford's bunting tossing.

In a break from tradition, H&W played clean, intelligent football with no evidence to support their normal thuggish tactics. Liam Daish, normally chief suspect, was more than happy to show some of his old skills and kept up verbal niceties with David Laws throughout the match.

Robinson beat the offside trap on the half hour, but hit his shot tamely at Nichols. Meanwhile at the other end, John Waldock (still suffering from a virus infection) calmly cleared a Tim Hambley effort off the line. With the clock running down for half time, Rawlinson pushed forward down the right flank and sent in a low cross which Daish coolly turned back to his keeper. Despite protestations, the referee waved play on.

Right on half time, a harmless cross from the right of the Weymouth goal caused panic in the home side's defence as Potter slipped over and Hambley at the far post could only head at the scrambling Potter who pushed the ball onto the upright and Robinson cleared the danger.

The Terras faithful changed ends fairly happy with their team's first half performance, being more than a match for their promotion chasing visitors.

All was to change for the second half as H&W stepped up a gear and Weymouth were pinned back. Dean Blake was guilty of a miss as he shot straight at Potter and Alex Browne was heroic in his clearance off the line following a Hambley effort.

Weymouth did make the odd foray forward, but seemed to lack the crispness and tactical nonce that was prevalent in the first half. JR was set up by Laws on 70 minutes, but his 20-yard effort thundered wide. Rowbo was taken out with an over the top tackle, sustaining a knee injury and was duly replaced by Deano.

Dean Blake blasted over from 10 yards from a good position, but H&W opened the scoring on 76 minutes from a free kick on the left flank. The ball was sent in and Hambley coolly helped it on its way with an overhead poke.

H&W were gifted a chance three minutes later when Alex Browne was pulled back whilst making a back pass to Potter, his weak kick was intercepted by O'Rourke but, with a one on one with Potter, "The Shed" did well to save his shot.

Kevin Parker was brought into the fray too late to make a difference, but his pace and skill will certainly be a useful addition on the left flank in the future.

Weymouth threw everything forward and had a couple of glorious chances, but it was not to be and Havant & Waterlooville won the day keeping up the dreams of Conference football.