Weymouth suffered a crushing defeat in the first qualifying round of the FA Cup on Saturday, going down 3-1 at Central Division strugglers Petersfield Town.
The Terras travelled to Love Lane as heavy favourites, and they made a bright start. Dean Evans saw an early effort fly wide, and Mark Molesley got himself into a good position but could only scuff a weak effort straight at the keeper.
Weymouth were inches away from taking the lead after a quarter of an hour. A long punt forwards from Matthews was put behind for a corner by Lewis Hyde, but he atoned for his error by clearing a deflected effort from Dean Evans off the line.
Mark Cooper tried his luck from range but could only shoot into the arms of the keeper, and from there the Rams hit the visitors with a devastating counter attack.
The hosts broke with pace, and a long cross-field ball found Joe Briggs in acres of space on the right wing. His low cross was fired home inside the six yard box by Alex Przespolweski to give Petersfield a shock lead.
That was a setback, but within 13 minutes the Terras were starring down the barrel of an embarrassing defeat when Town doubled their lead in truly audacious fashion.
Joe Briggs smashed a free kick towards goal from a full 50 yards out, and unbelievably it hit the underside of the bar, and bounced off Jason Matthews’ head and into the back of the net.
A totally freak goal, and perhaps an indication that it really wasn’t going to be Weymouth’s day.
And then just when it looked like the first half couldn’t get any worse for Weymouth, Mark Molesley – arguably their most dangerous looking player; was shown a straight red card after a rash two footed lunge on Hyde. He couldn’t really have any complaints.
Despite going a man down, the Terras kept pushing and really should have halved the deficit before the interval.
McPhee played in Yetton but the goalkeeper managed to pull off a great save with his leg, putting it behind for a corner; and minutes later Yetton found himself in a great position yet again, but the charismatic striker seems to be going through a real lull in confidence at the minute, and instead of taking the shot on he pulled it back for Dean Evans whose shot was blocked by a covering defender.
Weymouth had to go for broke in the second half, and they ended up playing with just two defenders.
They continued to huff and puff but were unable to break down a resilient Petersfield defence, and just past the hour the hosts picked them off on the counter attack yet again – Mike Dixon sprinting half the length of the pitch before rounding Matthews and slotting it into an unguarded net to kill off any lingering hopes of a comeback.
It was threatening to turn into a rout, and Przespolweski was left cursing his luck when his header came back off the crossbar, before substitute Harry Wedlake forced a great save from Matthews from point blank range.
Eighteen minutes from time the Terras finally made one of their 15 corners count when Yetton bundled home from a couple of yards after a scramble on the line, but it was no more than a consolation. Weymouth had been well beaten. And they were lucky it had only been 3-1.
Once again their lack of bite in the final third was there for all to see. They saw plenty of the ball even with ten men, but the build up play was static, there was a reluctance to shoot, they didn’t really threaten with any of the other 14 corners, they didn’t pick up the second balls, and were generally second best all over the park.
Credit to Petersfield, they thoroughly deserved their victory and all the best to them in the next round.
Dorchester Town will feel they deserved to go through too, but they face a replay at league rivals Cirencester on Tuesday after a frustrating 1-1 draw on Saturday.
They took the lead after a quarter of an hour when Jake Smeeton buried Bradley Tarbuck’s cross, but eight minutes before the break they gifted Cirencester a route back into the game.
Nathan Walker tried to shephard the ball back to Walker-Harris, but striker Charlie Griffin managed to get in front of the big defender and nick the ball away from the keeper, who hauled him down and gave away a penallty.
Griffin converted the penalty himself to level things up going into half time.
The Magpies thought they’d re-taken the lead early in the second half when Jonah Ayunga raced through on goal and squared to Ben Watson to tap into the net, but the celebrations were cut short by a very late offside flag.
Their frustrations were compounded when Ayunga was sent off for a second bookable offence 17 minutes from time.
The Centurions couldn’t make their numerical advantage count though and the two will meet for already the third time this season on Tuesday night.
Meanwhile Poole Town managed to squeeze past Western league outfit Barnstaple Town at Tatnam thanks to a first half penalty from Steve Devlin. The spot kick proved decisive in what was an otherwise drab and uneventful tie at Tatnam that saw very little in the way of goalmouth action. The Dolphins won’t mind though – they’re through.
Wimborne Town are also through after a 3-2 victory at home to Witheridge, but unfortunately Bridport’s cup dreams were brought crashing to a halt by Larkhall who hit four goals in the opening half an hour on their way to a 5-2 victory.
Weymouth will need to recover from their cup exit quickly, as they travel to second in the table Leamington on Saturday. They were many people’s dark horses for promotion and they’ve made an impressive start, so the Terras will need to be on form to get anything out of this game.
Poole Town travel to Biggleswade, who’ve yet to lose at home this season, whilst Dorchester will also look to maintain their unbeaten home record when they welcome Stratford Town to the Avenue.
James Spring
