Jordan Copp’s penalty five minutes into the second half was enough for Weymouth to lift the Dorset Senior Cup for the first time in over a decade after a hard fought 1-0 win over Ridgeway rivals Dorchester Town.
It’s the fourth time Weymouth have beaten their rivals in all competitions this season – following a league double and a 3-2 win at home in the Red Insure Cup earlier in the season.
Both sides named strong starting line-ups, with Dorchester having nothing left to play for and the Terras desperately trying to rediscover some sort of form for one last assault on the play-offs.
Weymouth began well – pressing high up the pitch and not allowing Dorchester to settle. They forced a couple of corners and were keeping the ball well, but the Magpies defence stood firm.
Slowly but surely, Dorchester began to get a foot hold in the game, and they had the games first real chance on 18 minutes when Terras keeper Jason Matthews took too long to clear the ball, and a poor touch almost let in Dan Smith, but Matthews did well to dive at the wingers feet and clear the ball to safety.
Matthews was almost beaten eight minutes later when some neat build up play lead to a shot from Lewis Morgan, but his shot few barely centimeters over the Terras crossbar.
Weymouth responded by forcing Magpies keeper Alan Walker-Harris into a stunning diving save minutes later when Steve Colwell let fire from the edge of the box, but Walker-Harris managed to palm the ball out for a corner when it looked destined for the top corner of the net.
That really was the best chance of the first half, as both sides probed without forcing anything clear cut.
The game needed an early second half goal to bring it to life, and that’s exactly what happened.
Patient build up play from the hosts led to Alec Fiddes sliding the ball through to Stewart Yetton who was tripped on the edge of the six yard box, leaving the referee with no real choice but to award a penalty.
Weymouth’s record from the spot has been poor this season, but Jordan Copp kept his cool – firing the ball calmly into the bottom right hand corner beyond the reach of Walker-Harris to give the Terras the lead.
In an instant, you could see the confidence coming back into the Terras play, and they were a kittens whisker away from doubling the lead barely a minute later, when Fiddes glided past 3 black & white shirts, cut in from the left, and hit a wonderful curling shot that came back off the crossbar before being hacked clear by the defence.
Dorchester tried to hit back on the counter attack, and Ben Watson was cleaned out by Sam Poole who received a yellow card for his troubles despite desperate protests from Dorchester that he was last man and should’ve been sent off. But Watson was being pushed out wide so it wasn’t really a clear goal scoring opportunity.
The game became scrappy again, as Dorchester continued to lump the ball long without getting much luck, and they became increasingly frustrated by the officials with a number of offside calls.
Ten minutes from time Weymouth were appealing for a penalty again when substitute Adam Kelly was brought down, but it was just outside the box and a free-kick was rightly awarded.
Kelly dusted himself down and took it himself, and saw his curling effort fly narrowly over the crossbar.
Chris Shephard then went agonisingly close – curling an effort just wide of the target, before George Rigg had a shot well saved by Walker-Harris.
Despite their good chances Weymouth hadn’t killed the game, and it lead to a nervy final few minutes, as the Magpies threw caution to the wind in desperate search of an equaliser.
But too many players were not at their best on the night, and it wasn’t until deep into injury time that Jason Matthews was forced to make a proper save – showing brilliant reflexes to tip Nathan Walker’s volley wide.
Weymouth cleared the corner and saw out the remaining seconds, and the full time whistle kicked off the celebrations, as the Terras completed a quadruple over their nearest and dearest rivals.
It was far from pretty, but the Terras played with the type of effort, commitment, grit and determination which we were so used to seeing during the first half of the season. They dug deep and got their just rewards.
They showed glimpses of the kind of football which took them to the top of the table a few months ago, and defensively they were a lot better than in recent times, although it must be said that Dorchester offered very little as an attacking force.
You could see just how much it meant to all the staff and players during the celebrations that followed. Hopefully that experience of lifting a trophy – however big or small it may be, will give them the hunger to push on for these final three league games and achieve what we know they’re capable of.
If they carry that level of performance into this final week, they have every chance of finishing in the play-offs.
The Terras will certainly need to be at their best on Saturday when they welcome league leaders Corby Town to the Bob Lucas Stadium.
The Steelmen are just a point clear of second placed Poole after the Dolphins won at home to Banbury on Tuesday night, and with Poole having a game in hand it’s now in their hands again. Both sides know that if they win all of their remaining games they’ll be champions. But Weymouth will have a major say on the destination of the title, and they desperately need the points to give themselves a chance of promotion.
It promises to be a thrilling climax to the season!
James Spring
