Harriers grounded
By Nigel Biddlecombe

JASON Tindall's men gave new Terras owner Mal-colm Curtis a winning start to his tenure at the club as Ashley Vickers and Gavin McCallum hit the goals that fired Weymouth up to 14th in Blue Square Premier.

The only sour note, on a good day for the Wessex Stadium outfit, was the sending-off of Paolo Vernazza nine minutes from time for two bookable offences.

The visitors began with the same line-up that started against Crawley Town last Friday with the only alteration on the bench being Trevor Challis, who returned after a lengthy lay-off to take the place of keeper Jason Matthews.

The home side came at Wey-mouth from the off, with Matthew Barnes-Homer looking dangerous. So threatening that Vernazza earned himself an early caution for a reckless challenge on the Harriers forward.

Despite the pressure, Kidderminster were restricted to set-pieces and efforts from distance as the Terras' defence held firm.

In the 15th minute Andy Ferrell hit a free-kick straight at Stewart, while Justin Richards shot well wide three minutes later.

Barnes-Homer saw three efforts fly wide, Vickers and Stewart combined to thwart Richards and a well struck free-kick from Jonny Harkness caused concern before passing the outside of an upright.

The game was 36 minutes old before Weymouth created their first real chance of the half.

Vickers' clearing header was picked up by Anton Robinson and helped on to McCallum.

The Canadian striker made ground before letting fly from the edge of the area, however, the home defence were able to clear at the expense of a corner, which came to nothing.

The final action of the half came two minutes into stoppage time when Vernazza was adjudged to have fouled Barnes-Homer and from the resulting dead-ball Stewart did well to hold on to Harkness' strike at the second attempt.

The second half started as the first had finished with referee Mohareb awarding a free-kick on the edge of the area, this time against Vickers. On this occasion Harkness' effort rebounded to safety.

The complexion of the match changed in the 52nd minute as the visitors took the lead.

Weymouth were awarded a free- kick wide on the right which took a deflection off the head of Ferrell for a corner.

Vickers reacted superbly to provide the finish as Vernazza's corner was swung into the area.

Justin Roberts cleared from Russell Penn three minutes later, but it was the visitors who took control of the game for the middle period of the half.

Jefferson Louis sent his header just wide after James Coutts and Narada Bernard combined well to allow the latter to get his cross over before the Terras increased their lead in the 59th minute.

Vernazza's hooked clearance from the edge of his own penalty area was collected by McCallum, whose neat control and turn left home skipper Stuart Whitehead marking fresh air, and the Terras' forward ran in on goal before driving home past the despairing Chris MacKenzie.

McCallum might have made it three 10 minutes later when he produced a spectacular bicycle kick from another Vernazza throw, but the effort went just over the bar.

Coutts let fly from 35 yards, but had to watch as his effort went agonisingly wide.

Although the home side were putting Weymouth under pressure their final ball continued to let them down, and Stewart - despite saving well from Penn - was rarely troubled in the Terras' goal.

Vernazza received a second yellow in an innocuous incident with nine minutes remaining, an incident that also saw Nick Crittenden cautioned.

Stewart's blatant time-wasting also saw him enter the referee's notebook as the inconsistent official belatedly attempted to impose his authority on the game.