Butlers boys beaten by brains and brawn
by Steve Dadd & Pete Pavey

27th August 2002

"After the lord mayors show" was Alex Browne’s retort after his 500th appearance for the club on this August bank holiday derby fixtures against former Terra, Martyn Rogers, Tiverton Town.

Fielding the side that had swept aside early promotion contenders Dover only two days previously, confidence was high around the ground as a well-supported 'Tivvy' took to the field.

Tiverton laid out their stall immediately, Mark Robinson was floored on the edge of the 18-yard box within 3 minutes, from the resultant free kick, Skipper Browne headed down to Robinson whose shot was fired straight at Collis in the visiting goal.

Weymouth made all the early running, but with a referee that wanted the game to flow and linesmen that needed eyes in the back of their heads the game was heading for a WWF mass tag finale.

But for all of the visitor’s strong-arm tactics, their midfield and forwards broke quickly, knew where their players were and found space intelligently. Tivvy’s first real chance came on 17 minutes, a Paul Chenoweth cross found Anthony Lynch’s head but his effort went wide.

Bizarrely Hutchinson was booked for moving a ball after a free kick was given against him, yet two previous occurrences by Tiverton had gone unpunished.

Matthews got down well to a Jamie Mudge shot from 20 yards and at the other end a Mark Robinson shot went just wide of the upright.

The towering Nathan Rudge was spotted writhing on the ground after an "off the ball" incident, accusing fingers were pointed at Giles although even the Tiverton players warming up in front of me failed to spot anything, Giles was spoken to by the referee after consulting his assistants who had spotted nothing. Two minutes later, Giles was on the floor having taken a boot to the head, his assailant; Rudge then fell to the ground clutching his head, Tiverton players screamed for retribution claiming a Giles head butt, which, was complete fantasy, anyhow things lumbered on.

On 26 minutes a Hutchinson cross was met by Robinson whose header had Collis at full stretch, but Tiverton took the lead after 35 minutes, Scott Rodgers controlled the ball with his left hand and shot onto the chest of the advancing Alex Browne and into the back of the net.

Tivvy’s Anthony Lynch should have made it 2 had it not been for a reaction save from Matthew to deny the former Yeovil front man.

Right on half time a Robinson cross was met by Giles at the far post, his powerful header was straight into the arms of Collis.

So at half time the score was Weymouth 0 Tiverton Town 1

Right from the off, with Geoff Butlers warm words still resounding in their ears the Terras where quick out of the blocks and a Hutchinson cross found Lee Phillips but his snap shot was well covered by Collis.

For all of Weymouth’s bluster Tiverton went 2 up. Kenway and Alex Browne looked to have unfairly bundled Lynch to the ground as the ball ran to Tulley, he lost the ball to Rudge who hit a speculative shot from all of 30 yards which crashed into the back of the net.

At this point the game was lost until Giles was put through, beating the off side trap he galloped goalwards only to be ankle tapped to the ground just outside of the area, Mr. Beale immediately reached for his red card and Peters was walking.

Weymouth wasted the free kick with Hutchinson shooting high and wide. Peters had someone to wash his back when Mudge was dismissed for elbowing Kenway in an off the ball incident.

Well, this was it, Tiverton were there for the taking, except no one told the Weymouth side, a packed disciplined back line dealt with the Terras midfield attacks of hoofing the ball straight at the huge Tiverton side.

Dean and Ashford replaced Hutchinson and Simon Browne on 68 minutes, almost immediately the visitors should have gone further ahead but Rudge spooned his effort right in front of goal.

With the Wessex faithful becoming more vocal in their dismay and frustration, Weymouth’s only real effort on goal was a diving header at the far post right on full time by Lee Phillips, so after the glorious win at Dover this was the pits of the earth as Weymouth left the pitch and Tiverton rightly celebrated.