Saints alive as Terras suffer away-day-misery
By Nigel Biddlecombe

Tuesday 30th August 2005

WEYMOUTH suffered a four-goal hiding at St Albans City as their miserable away form continued. The Terras suffered their third consecutive Conference South defeat on the road at Clarence Park.

Garry Hill's side were fuming at the match officials after this latest setback in Hertfordshire, disputing the hosts opener and claiming Chukki Eribenne was denied a legitimate second half equaliser.

But the Saints got the rub of the green and blasted three late goals to put another major dent in Weymouth's title ambitions.

Boss Hill brought in Brad Thomas to replace Roy O'Brien in defence, who was still feeling the effects of his injury against Carshalton at the weekend.

The visitors made one other change, bringing in Richie Hanlon to replace the unlucky Tony Taggart who was relegated to the bench.

The Terras started brightly and after two minutes Purser made good ground on the right, turning two players to find space, but his cross went behind the onrushing forwards.

St Albans were lively and should have scored after eight minutes when Martin Cousins and striker Lee Clarke, who caused the visitors problems throughout, combined to set up Tom Davis, but defender Thomas did well to clear off the
line.

Although no side was able to take command, it was St Albans who created the next real opening when Mark Graham broke from defenceto release find Djounin Songare who set up Clarke to shoot wide.

St Albans grabbed a 32nd minute lead in controversial circumstances. Assistant referee Chris Turner harshly adjudged Terras defender Trevor Challis to have pushed Clarke in the box.

To everyone's surprise, including the home side, the hosts were awarded a penalty and Clarke himself sent Matthews the wrong way with the kick.

Following this setback, Weymouth tried to get back on terms and striker Dan Webb had a decent shout for a penalty turned down after he was flattened in the area moments after the restart.

In the 35th minute the home side split the Terras defence apart when Clark fed Graham on the left, he in turn laid off to Simon Martin but the striker blazed over.

In injury time both sides could have scored - a great move by Purser, Tully and Hanlon nearly put Purser through but the final ball was poor.

At the other end Clarke's 25-yard shot rebounded to Graham but he shot weakly at keeper Jason Matthews.

Weymouth replaced Dutton with Adam Wilde at the interval to give the visitors more width and started the stronger after the break.

But the visitors were left feeling hard done by again on 49 minutes

Weymouth : Matthews, Tully, Challis, Thomas, Bound, Harris, Dutton (Wilde), Hanlon, Webb (Jackson 76 mins) , Purser, Eribenne

Unused Subs : Carey, Taggart , Lee-Barrett

St Albans City : Bastock, Seeby, Cousins, Cracknell (Williams 89 mins) , Ada, Songare, Graham, Davis (Hann 76 mins) , Martin, Clarke, Roddis (Allam 84 mins)

Unused Subs :

Bookings :

Weymouth : Thomas, Dutton

St Albans City : Ada, Roddis