Winter draw on
by Steve Dadd & Pete Pavey

9th October 2002

Weymouth returned to the Wessex Stadium after several weeks on the road to entertain almost "old friends" Chippenham Town. Browne, Bradford Kenway and Waldock were all out injured, with Simon Browne still nursing a sore thigh.

Weymouth started as brightly as the international space station that hurtled overhead. It was all Weymouth for the first 45 minutes as they carried on where they left off a few weeks ago in the FA Cup encounter at Hardenhuish.

Sajic was the first to try his luck, his shot spun across the face of goal after Julian Charles had put him in space. Robinson was next in the queue, then Charles, Charles again and then Dean, and that was just in the first quarter of an hour.

Lee Phillips got in on the act with two efforts in two minutes, his first a near post header was cleared off the line, and then a shot from eight yards was well saved by the acrobatic Bittner.

Weymouth were given a scare on the half hour in Chippenham's first attack. A Harrington corner found Paul out on the edge of the area, he walloped the ball goalwards which Matthews at full stretch stuck up a hand and diverted onto the crossbar. 

It was beginning to be the Julian Charles show as all balls led to him. He caused Chippenham's back four which, included Adie Mings at left back, all sorts of problems.

Weymouth got the goal they deserved just before the interval. Mark Robinson broke free down the left flank, lesser players might have taken a tumble as he took some hefty challenges driving to the by line, his cross was partially cleared to Charles stationed out on the left of the box, he drove his right footed shot into the top corner of the net.

So at half time the score was:

Weymouth 1 Chippenham Town 0

Weymouth restarted without Dean. He was withdrawn with a pulled hamstring, Rawlinson substituted.

With the wind increasing in Chippenham's favour, Mings wasted a clear cut opportunity. Former Bath favourite Paul provided a cross into the Weymouth area, Mings, in front of goal and only a few yards out, managed to blast over the bar.

Weymouth were dealt another injury blow as Charles received a hefty knock on the hip on the hour, he was replaced by Whiteman. Weymouth lost some of their shape and the visitors pushed three up front as the Terras weathered the storm.

Tempers were starting to get frayed on the touchline as Tommy "who ate all the pies" Saunders fell out with the assistant referee over the flagging for substitutions, then was further angered when the same linesman stumbled and trod on his foot. The mercury was rising when an empty plastic Panda Pops bottle blew onto the pitch from the disabled ramp, Saunders thought that it had been thrown at him from the stand, but the roly poly manager finally went into melt down when he saw that Bittner was being offered sweets and he wasn’t offered any!

The players meanwhile waited in the cold wind for Saunders to calm down and, upon the restart, Chippenham were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area. Hutchinson was booked for running in too early and from the retaken kick Griffin sent a beautiful curling shot into the bottom right hand corner of the net.

Weymouth awoke. Whiteman teased his way down the right flank and unleashed a strong shot that had Bittner struggling to cope with and Tully pushed forward on the right flank supporting Robinson and Whiteman in Weymouth’s quest for a winner. But it could have gone horribly wrong for the Terras when, on the 83rd minute, a static Weymouth defence let Griffin through. With only Matthews to beat, the Weymouth gloveman stood tall and Griffin shot well wide.


Weymouth piled on the pressure for the final knockings with Rawlinson forcing Bittner to be at his best with a powerful side foot shot after a good build up, and, right on time, Rawlinson's free kick took a deflection that had Bittner again flying through the air, but at the final whistle the score was:

Weymouth 1 Chippenham Town