Away-day joy for Terras
By Michael Pearlman

Monday 19th September 2005

A SUPERB performance from Weymouth saw them pick up their first away points in the Conference South this season at the expense of a woeful Newport County.

The Terras convincingly beat a beleaguered County outfit, who were rocked earlier in the week after the sacking of manager John Cornforth just seven games into the new campaign.

Indeed, Weymouth will probably not find winning on the road any easier all season after scoring two goals, inside the first 20 minutes that might as well have been gift wrapped for their convenience.

It could have all been so different for County who did start brightly, because just
two minutes before Weymouth took the lead, it was the home side who should have been ahead.

Strong work down the right flank by lone striker Cortez Belle saw him play a clever ball inside to midfielder Antonio Corbisiero, whose near post effort was
turned wide by Terras keeper Jason Matthews on 10 minutes.

Wayne O'Sullivan curled in the resulting corner and Belle rose to head it firmly
towards goal and past the keeper, but left-back Steve Tully made a fantastic goal-line clearance to deny the big Newport striker.

The groans around Spytty Park began in earnest after that moment of bad luck
for the home side and just two minutes later the doom and gloom merchants were proved to be spot on in their pessimism.

A decent spell of possession by Weymouth resulted in Tully making an
overlapping run down the right flank and he aimed a long cross field pass towards the backpost, where it was intercepted by County skipper Darren Jones.

However, rather than head the ball clear Jones made a mess of things, his header was intercepted by Terras midfielder Tony Taggart who slipped the ball inside for

Wayne-Purser to lash home on the volley from just eight yards out.

With confidence draining out of the under-fire County players by the second and the extremely fit and mobile Weymouth players seeing more and more of the ball it was vital that County kept things tight after this setback, but just four minutes later they once again pressed the self-destruct button and found themselves
two down.

Youngster Sam O'Sullivan was this time the culprit, he never looked comfortable
playing wide on the right in a five-man midfield and his defensive limitations
were cruelly punished by the full-timers from the South coast.

O'Sullivan was in possession way back in his own half looking to spread the play, but his pass was intercepted by Taggart who merely took a touch to set himself before lashing the ball past a helpless Nathan Vaughan.

County continued to press on with Belle as a lone striker for the rest of the half, but with ex-Stockport defender and Terras skipper Matt Bound in superb form, the long hopeful balls that County were pumping up to their target man were rarely causing any problems.

Weymouth were unlucky not to be three up at half-time after striker Kirk Jackson
saw his thunderous shot bounce back out off the underside of the crossbar after
Steve Clark's pinpoint cross.

However, it took the Terras just eight second half minutes to score a third, left-back Ian Hutchinson crossed smartly to the back post where Clark was waiting to head the ball back into the path of Jackson, who was left with nothing more than a tap-in.

Weymouth continued to dominate in the later stages and could have scored a couple more goals but for some poor finising and decent goalkeeping.