There was incredible late drama involving all three Dorset sides this weekend, with last gasp goals and late heartache galore.
Poole Town have returned to the top of the Southern Premier League after they won a real ding-dong battle with Cambridge City 3-2 at Tatnam.
The Dolphins made the worst possible start when Jamie Whisken headed into his own net under pressure from a corner in just the second minute of the match.
But Poole recovered well and largely ran the first half. They were inches away from equalising when Steve Devlin’s shot was tipped over the crossbar by the Cambridge goalkeeper, before they were awarded a penalty after a quarter of an hour when Brooks went down in the box.
Steve Devlin is normally Mr reliable from the spot, but on this occasion Zach Barrett guessed correctly and tipped the ball round the post.
City’ reprieve was shirt lived though, as from the resulting corner Joe Quigley leapt unchallenged to head home and haul the hosts level.
Ten minutes later the turnaround was complete; Quigley this time turning provider to set up Mason Walsh who fired an unstoppable shot into the top corner of the net.
The game turned scrappy for the next 50 minutes or so, with Cambridge City doing their best to force an equaliser but not really creating anything clear cut, whilst Poole seemed happy to play out time.
But twenty minutes from time Cambridge City were awarded a penalty in controversial circumstances, after Tom Pepper was adjudged to have been tripped on the edge of the penalty area.
Poole protested that the foul had been committed outside the box, but after a lengthy discussion with his linesman, the referee pointed to the spot to the dismay of the home crowd.
Josh Dawkin converted the penalty to even things up with twenty minutes to go, and now the pressure was on Poole to find a winner.
It looked like the game was petering out into a draw which probably would have been a fair result on balance, but a minute from time Poole were awarded a second penalty of the match when Gilkes was brought down in the box.
Steve Devlin made no mistake this time – slotting home to earn the Dolphins three points which sent them back to the top of the table, thanks in part to Dorchester holding Corby to a draw.
In truth Corby should have been out of sight by half time at Steel Park, but they had to settle for a 1-0 lead at the break thanks to Greg Mills’ goal in just the third minute.
However all those missed chances were to come back to haunt the Steelmen, when Mark Irvine opened his account for the Magpies with a quarter of an hour remaining.
Since the appointment of Mark Jermyn the Magpies have grown a strong backbone and are suddenly tough to beat. But a minute from time the Magpies were in dreamland when Lewis Morgan popped up to give Dorchester a shock lead.
Unfortunately though Dorchester failed to hold on, and a minute into injury time Corby were awarded a spot kick which Greg Mills converted to earn Corby a point.
There will no doubt be mixed emotions all round for both sides. Corby will be incredibly relieved not to have lost, but with the chances they had they’ll know they should have had the points wrapped up by the time Irvine scored. Dorchester on the other hand will be thrilled with an excellent point away from home, although surely a little part of them must be wondering what might have been.
There’s no doubt about the overriding emotions at Weymouth though, after they had to settle for a draw at home to rock bottom Burnham.
Nothing is ever a given in football, but this was a game Weymouth were expected to win, and win well.
And when Ashley Wells fired the Terras in front barely 90 seconds in with a stunning strike from 25 yards it looked like being a comfortable afternoon for Weymouth.
But just four minutes later the home crowd were stunned, when Carl Davies took advantage of a defensive slip up to level things up.
The longer the game wore in, the more striking it became just how little threat the promotion chasing hosts were actually carrying.
Burnham were sticking eleven men behind the ball and defending for their lives. The Terras were struggling to penetrate the wall of Blue and White shirts, and they were thankful to their young keeper for keeping them level right on the stroke of half time.
As the second half wore on, Weymouth continued to pass the ball about in their own half before hitting hopeful punts forwards with little effect, and the home crowd were becoming increasingly restless.
Jordan Copp was introduced to the action and nearly scored with his first touch when he let fly from the edge of the box, but the shot just grazed the top of the crossbar.
With twenty minutes to go though, it looked as though the tide may have turned Weymouth’s way, when defender Joseph Oseyemi was shown a straight red card for a reckless challenge on Jamie Laird.
But you would never have known the visitors were down to ten men, as the Terras continued to huff and puff.
But then with five minutes to go, the Terras finally made a breakthrough.
Patient build up play eventually led to the ball being played to Stewart Yetton on the edge of the box. The striker lost his balance, but showed great tenacity to keep the ball and find Tim Sills unmarked in the middle of the box, and the experienced striker had time to control the ball and hit it towards the bottom corner.
Everyone’s hearts were in their mouths as the ball struck the foot of the post and rolled along the line, before working it’s way over to the sheer relief of everybody – the Terras looked like they had gotten out of jail.
But as the clock struck the 90 minute mark, the Terras shot themselves in the foot.
A simple hoof up the pitch caught Jamie Laird and Sam Poole in no mans land, and Burnham’s player-manager Danny Gordan was allowed to race through one on one with the keeper before firing home to level things up.
Weymouth were stunned, and just when everyone thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse – Weymouth shot themselves in the foot yet again with more suicidal defending.
Weymouth gave the ball away straight from the restart, and it was just another aimless punt forwards which split the two centre backs. Joe Wallocot had been given a barrage of abuse for not coming off his line for the second goal. Well this time he did, and he completely missed his clearance, allowing Gordan to race through and score into an unguarded net to seemingly hand Burnham their first win of 2015.
That was the cue for many Terras fans to head for the exits, whilst those that stayed turned on the team with chants of “this isn’t good enough” and “what a load of rubbish”.
Tim Sills did notch his second of the game with virtually the last kick of the game to snatch Weymouth a barely deserved point and condemn Burnham to relegation, but the lack of celebration from anyone in the ground told it’s own story. A crushing result for Weymouth which felt like a defeat, and left many fans ruling out a promotion push.
Weymouth’s defence has been their achilles heel this season. They have conceded 61 goals in the league, meaning more than half the league have a better defensive record than them.
It’s long been said that title’s are built on defences, and they need look no further than Poole for a prime example. The Dolphins have by far the meanest defence in the league having conceded just 23 goals all season. Poole don’t put teams to the sword every week, but they know that nine times out of ten one goal will be enough for them, and that’s the reason they’re top of the league.
Weymouth now sit fourth in the table, nine points adrift of Poole having played three games more, with their title hopes in tatters. Their focus now has to be in cementing a place in the play-off spots. They have a six point cushion over sixth placed Hungerford Town, but with Truro, Corby and Poole to come in their remaining five games, nothing is guaranteed.
They make the daunting trip to third placed Truro City on Easter Monday desperately needing a win. The one thing in Weymouth’s favour may be the fact that they don’t play on Saturday, whilst Truro have a long trip up to Redditch, so Weymouth should be a lot fresher going into that game. But they really need to pull themselves together now, otherwise they could completely throw away any chance of promotion.
Elsewhere, this Tuesday night the league’s top two meet in the second leg of the Red Insure Cup final, with the tie delicately poised at 1-1 after the first leg at Steel Park.
Both Poole and Corby have crucial league games coming up this weekend so no doubt they will both make changes for this game, but it should still be a cracking game between the two best sides in the Southern League. What’s more it’s a cup final, and both sides would love to put one over on the other in the run in.
Both sides then play difficult away games on Saturday – with Poole travelling to 11th placed Chippenham Town, and Corby making the long journey to 13th placed Bideford, who possess one of the league’s best home records.
Dorchester Town’s relegation worries are all but over, and they travel to Cambridge City on Saturday for a game with nothing really riding on it. But players will now be looking to stake a claim for places in the side next season, and no doubt they’ll be keen to finish the season as strongly as possible.
James Spring
