Weymouth fall in seven goal thriller
by Paul O'Reilly

Wednesday 24th March 2004

Weymouth missed out on the chance to return to the top of the Dr Martens Premier Division tonight when they lost by the odd goal in seven while leaders, Crawley Town, went down 1-2 at Merthyr Tydfil.

Looking back, it was a pulsating match of attacking football from both sides, but with each team's defensive abilities very much as poor as their attacking instincts were strong.

Nuneaton looked very dangerous on the counter attack in the opening quarter with Mickey Brown and Stuart Whittaker stretching the Weymouth defensive by using the full width of the field and their respective pace to good effect.

And it was Stuart Whittaker who opened the scoring at Manor Park with a left foot strike from just inside the area on 23 minutes that beat Jimmy Glass in the Terras' goal as he stood rooted to his line.

Steve Claridge thought his side had forced an equaliser when he and another Terras' player bundled home keeper Darren Acton and a defender into the net with the ball from a set piece, but referee Kinseley and his assistant thought otherwise and awarded a free kick. Forty years ago it may have stood, but not in 2004.

It was to get worse for the Terras fifteen minutes later when Jimmy Glass again stayed rooted to his line leaving Graeme Power (I think it was) to challenge a hopeful high ball in to the Weymouth box, but Gerald Murphy got his head to it first to make it 2-0 in front of a reasonable sized home crowd.

Weymouth continued their attacking play and produced some excellent football. They just kept looking vulnerable at the back.

Liam Horstead clipped the top of the bar from the edge of the area, Steve Tully saw a near-post header superbly stopped by Acton, and then Graeme Power's drive was parried by Acton who recovered quickly under pressure from Claridge and Paul Buckle.

Dion Scott appeared to be getting away with murder at the heart of the Borough defence with little nudges and pulls on Lee Phillips in order to gain an advantage. Efforts that went largely unpunished by Mr. Kinseley.

It was Scott, however, who was to put the Terras back in the game. Steve Tully's run to the by-line and cut back was turned past Acton by the outstretched foot of Scott giving his keeper no chance on the stroke of half-time.

The second half continued the tune of the first. Great attacking football from both sides with Borough looking particularly dangerous on the break.

It was from one of these break's that Borough extended their lead. A quick move down the right flank saw a superb cross into the heart of the Weymouth box which was converted by a delighted Stuart Whittaker for his second of the night.

Weymouth refused to give in though, and with news that Crawley were two down at Merthyr Tydfil, they continued their assaults on the Borough goal.

Ian Hutchinson replaced Liam Horstead on 58 minutes.

Their reward came on the hour when Weymouth pressure saw the ball driven in from the edge of the area and converted / deflected by Steve Claridge past Darren Acton.

The fans urged their manager and team on, re-iterating the score at Merthyr to Claridge who promptly retorted, "I know, but that doesn't help us."

He was quite right. While Merthyr were doing his side a favour in Wales, they were not at Manor Park to help shore up his defence which had more cracks and holes in it than you could imagine.

Robbie Pethick's commitment, or perhaps reckless abandonment, to his tackles could have produced a red card on another night

Jamie Impey had to resort to Scott's tactics of climbing all over attackers in his attempts to win the ball.

Tim Clancy seemed to be trying to cover the whole back line and was booked for kicking the ball back to Borough after a free-kick was awarded, presumably because it struck a home player.

Graeme Power? Well, his performance was deemed so poor by the fans that when he slid in recklessly on a Borough player, the AWAY support were calling for a red card instead of the yellow he received. He was tortured down the left flank by Brown and then his replacement, Simeon Williams.

Terry Angus went into the book for protesting that Power only received a yellow card.

Steve Tully was tireless and superb down the right wing this evening in my book.

Jimmy Glass, who had thumped a couple of clearances straight to Darren Acton, got an unlikely assist after 74 minutes. His long kick saw Borough in disarray at the back and Lee Phillips ran in to take it around Acton and then slide it into the empty net a fraction of a second before the Borough defence could get a block in.

The travelling Terras were now urging their side on for victory and it nearly came minutes later when a Lee Philpott free-kick was floated towards the far post and just needed a touch from Impey, Claridge, or either of the two Borough defenders, to find the net. Unfortunately, they all missed it and it went out for a goal-kick. Terry Angus then exchanged a few words with his keeper which were clearly not friendly.

Borough always looked dangerous on the attack and struck the killer blow on 81 minutes, Gary Fitzpatrick thumping home a drive past Glass in front of the now vociferous home support.

Weymouth still had a chance to take a point from this game after hard work from Steve Claridge found Paul Buckle six yards out. Buckle, under pressure, appeared to only have to swing at the ball to level the scores, but took too long and the chance went begging.

Mr. Kinseley finally blew time on Weymouth's challenge after about six minutes of stoppage time, and the Borough party began.

This turned out to be a remarkable game that could have finished something like 10-7 to the Borough in my opinion. A feast of goals, but Weymouth will really need to stem the tide of goals against if they seriously want to win promotion this season.