The Beat Goes On
By Steve Dadd & Pete Pavey

24th March 2002

After their two battling away trips, the Terras entertained lowly Hednesford Town looking to acquire three easy points.

Hednesford had a great chance on three minutes, Cross headed down a corner straight at the feet of Stuart Lake his toe poke went wide.

After the first frantic five minutes Weymouth got into their stride and purposefully set about the visitors goal.

Dean tried his luck from distance but his effort was poor and went very wide.

Kevin Parker was setting the left flank alight and Mark Haran was lucky to stay on the pitch with a two footed late tackle on Parker from behind. With only eight minutes on the clock Hutchinson should have scored, great interchange play between Cross and Dean set up Hutchie but his shot was inches wide.

Danny Bews, although in the thick of it, looked sadly well out of sorts and very little service to the front-runners was gained from the right flank.

Dean was inspiration in the centre of the park; his Jekyll and Hyde character was pivotal in all of Weymouth's moves.

Paul Payne spread himself well to stop a Wayne Simpson shot but it really was all Weymouth at this stage.

With half hour gone, a speculative lob upfield found Neil Davies, beating Cross for pace, the former Dorchester player of the year hauled the forward to the ground, Mr Humphrey's had no hesitation in sending Cross off.

Against the run of play the visitors went one up; Matt Gardener found Derek Rae who looked suspiciously off side, he calmly slotted past Payne.

On forty minutes Hutchinson worked his way into the box and his shot had Gayle, the visitors glove man clawing at the air to push his shot out for a corner.

From the corner Dean saw Gayle off his line; his cool lob was salvaged on the line just under the bar.

So as the sides went in at half time the score was Weymouth 0 Hednesford 1

Most around the ground expected the home side to make up the difference against a poor Hednesford outfit.

Newland replaced Bews as Weymouth started strongly from the restart, With Weymouth's standard being hauled down from it's lofty position on the floodlight tower, this was the signal for the home side's surrender; Hednesford went two up on the hour. Stuart Lake, unmarked at the near post, glanced Stewart Airdrie's corner into the back of the net.

Weymouth failed to compete from then on in, any notion of a team game was lost as ten individuals played out the last sorry thirty minutes.

Waldock was booked for a foul on Adewale Ajetunndel after seventy minutes, both players had been kicking lumps out of each other all game.

Hutchinson was hauled down and stamped on two minutes later, but Mr Humphrey turned a blind eye to that incident.

As the game became messier, Newland made a name for himself as " Mr Hardman", his scything two-footed reckless tackle on Derek Rae in the box witnessed Mr Humphries pointing to the spot. Richard Lucas sent his effort high into the top left hand corner of the net.

With the crowd venting their anger at Andy Mason and the Chairman, the ground began to empty.

A free kick on seventy-three minutes saw Stuart Airdrie header home to complete the home sides' embarrassment.

New signing Fitch replaced Robinson on eighty minutes and Walker came on for Parker with five minutes of the game remaining.