Poole Town have extended their lead at the top of the Southern Premier League to five points over Weymouth and Corby Town after they smashed Bideford for six on Tuesday evening.
The kick off was actually delayed by half an hour due to a tragic accident on one of the main roads into Bideford, but once the game did kick off, the Dolphins put on a terrific show of attacking football to rack up their biggest away win of the season for the second game in a row.
Marvin Brooks gave Poole the lead in the 35th minute, and Steve Devlin doubled the lead five minutes before the break.
Any hopes the North Devon club had of a second half fightback were all but extinguished five minutes after the break as Marvin Brooks got his second of the night, before a 22 minute hat-trick from AFC Bournemouth loanee Joe Quigley wrapped up the scoring.
Once again, the travelling Dolphins fans were given more reason to cheer as title rivals Weymouth suffered their fourth defeat in five games at the hands of Hungerford Town.
For the third time in four games the Terras conceeded a soft early goal when they failed to deal with a corner, and Mark Draycott bundled the ball home on the line to leave Weymouth with a mountain to climb after only eight minutes.
The Crusaders were yet to lose at home, and had only conceeded four goals on home soil all season, but the Terras responded in brilliant fashion, and nearly equalised on 20 minutes when Steve Colwell’s header just grazed the top of the crossbar.
Shortly afterwards Stewart Yetton was given a golden chance to equalise, but he didn’t seem to realise quite how much time and space he had, and his rushed effort was straight at the goalkeeper.
Weymouth continued to press in the second half but with little reward. Hungerford defended well in numbers, kept their shape, and threw themselves in front of any goalbound efforts.
Two near misses around fifteen minutes from time ultimately proved it wasen’t to be Weymouth’s night.
First, the Hungerford goalkeeper pulled off quite possibly the best save I’ll see this season. Calvin Brooks headed powerfully away from the keeper towards the bottom corner, but somehow the keeper showed amazing reflexes to get down and palm the ball behind for a corner.
From the resulting corner, Stewart Yetton saw a header hit the post before bouncing behind for a goal kick.
Two weeks ago those sorts of things were falling in Weymouth’s favour and being bundled home, but suddenly Weymouth are just not getting the rub of the green.
Two minutes from time, with Weymouth throwing everyone forward in desperate search of an equaliser, they were caught on the break, and Pilling was allowed a free run at the Weymouth defence before picking his spot, and securing the 3 points for his side.
Weymouth’s players were visibly dejected at full time. They couldn’t have given anymore on the night. In truth they have played worse and won games this season, but right now they are going through one of those spells that every team goes through at some stage, when simply nothing is going their way.
They shouldn’t be too downhearted, despite the result it was a much improved performance from Weymouth, and if they continue to play like that the points will soon start to come again, but as in any sport, they need a bit of luck.
Weymouth now lie third in the table, 5 points adrift of Poole who they face in a double header in a couple of weeks.
What they can’t afford to do is leave themselves needing to win both games in order to stay in the title race. To avoid that, they must get back to winning ways on Saturday when they welcome 18th placed Histon to the Bob Lucas Stadium.
Histon possess the divisions second worst away record, having picked up just five points on their travels, but bizzareley they are unbeaten in their last 12 home games.
Weymouth will be expected to win, and to some extent Dorchester Town will be hoping that the Terras can infict more misery on one of their relegation rivals.
It’s the Magpies turn to travel to Bulpit Lane to face Hungerford on Saturday, but they will go there optomistic that they can cause an upset. Despite last weekend’s defeat at Truro City, many positives were taken from Mark Jermyn’s first match in charge, and he’ll be hoping to get his first points on the board on Saturday.
The recent performances have improved, but the Magpies need to turn those performances into points, as they still sit one point off safety.
They’ll also be hoping that their other Dorset rival Poole Town can do them a favour by beating 19th placed Arlesey Town, who sit two points above them.
The Dolphins have found their goal scoring form at a crucial time, and with Weymouth stuttering of late, they now have a chance to build a decent cushion between themselves and their nearest challengers. Something they’ll be keen to do, with the “El Jurrasicoast” double header just over a week away!
James Spring
