Smith in Seventh Heaven
By Nigel Biddlecombe

Monday 11th December 2006

SKIPPER Ben Smith grabbed his seventh of the season at the Victoria Stadium to help the Terras return to the top three but they did not have everything their own way.

Keeper Jason Matthews pulled off a great penalty save to stop Northwich levelling in the first half before full back Trevor Challis was sent off with 16 minutes remaining.

Weymouth came up against extreme pressure in the latter stages but they showed tremendous character to ensure they landed their second win on the spin.

Simon Downer came in for Roy O'Brien and Lee Elam returned from injury and replaced Richard Logan. Wayne Purser and Raphael Nade began up front.
Northwich attacked from the kick-off creating three good chances within the opening 90 seconds but fortunately for the travelling supporters Matthews safely held them all.

After a slow start the Terras then began to settle down and play the better football but they were unable to find the final pass needed to trouble the home defence.
On 11 minutes Elam beat 2 players on the right flank and crossed into the path of the on-rushing Purser but his effort was too high.

The only goal of the game came in the 17th minute when the hard working Elam beat his man and found Steve Tully. The Terras' defender crossed into the penalty area only for the ball to rebound off of a home player into the path of Ben Smith who was able to control and fire home from eight yards.

Nade might have added a sec­ond eight minutes later when Elam crossed. The' Carlisle United loanee found himself with space to get in his header but unfortunately he was unable to hit the target.

Michael Carr was asking questions of the Weymouth defence and might have done better when he broke away from the resulting goal kick but his shot flew high over the crossbar.

With 40 minutes gone the Vics had a tremendous opportunity to get back into the game when Jonny Allan fought his way into the penalty area only to be upended by a dual challenge by Ashley Vickers and Simon Downer.

Felix Bastians - on loan from Nottingham Forest - took the kick but the diving Matthews brilliantly saved his effort, with the defence reacting quickest to clear the danger.

The second half was never going to be as open as the first period and it was no surprise to see both sides largely confined to the midfield areas.

Northwich had the first chance of the half after Allan had beaten Downer to the ball and found Paul Brayson but his effort went the way of several others and flew over the bar.

Abdou El Kholti, playing in a more forward role, then made good ground along the left wing for the Terras and hit a powerful ball across the penalty area only to see it evade everybody and go harmlessly out of play.

Heavy rain made ball control difficult and this contributed to breaking up the flow of a game already lacking in continuity.

The referee, who was inconsis­tent throughout; then suddenly . seemed to want to seek the lime­light. He cautioned both Smith (67) and Nade (69) for harmless challenges before showing Chal­lis a straight red card after the Terras' defender had clearly won the ball in a firm but fair challenge on Brayson.

The Weymouth man was incensed as several of the home players surrounded the referee encouraging him to show the red card and Brayson - having gone down as if the victim of a shooting - jumped to his feet to applaud the decision.

A frenetic final 16 minutes followed with the Weymouth def­ence managing to hold out under pressure. The only real opportunity fell to Gref Young three minutes into stoppage time but his header went well over the bar.

Weymouth can be satisfied with a hard earned three points that gave them their first away league win since the trip to Crawley Town in October.

For the Terras the introduction of Chukki Eribenne as a substitute for Purser after 65 minutes saw the ex-AFC Bournemouth man make his 100th appearance for the club since joining in 2004.