SALISBURY 3 WEYMOUTH 2

WEYMOUTH conceded an early lead to come up second best at Salisbury in a match between two evenly-matched sides. The result dropped Weymouth down to fifth with a mid-table finish to the season looking increasingly likely for the newly-promoted side.

Worryingly for the Seasiders, Michael Westlake will yet again be out for the foreseeable future after aggravating an ankle injury from which he had only just returned. Westlake was forced to retire towards the end of the first half after colliding with a Salisbury forward in the Weymouth circle.

The match started well for the Seasiders, who had much of the early possession.

The visitors soon won a penalty corner and a drag flick by Patrick May was stopped inside the left post by a Salisbury defender. Weymouth soon won another corner and this time Chris Fry converted with a deflection from a Daniel Bowles pass and the Seasiders almost scored a second soon after.

Skipper Simon Harvey was played in to go three-on-two in the Salisbury circle, with Pat May to his left and Sam Drewitt to his right. He picked out Drewitt on the base line but Drewitt was unable to get past the approaching goalkeeper.

The hosts then levelled through an unfortunate error by the Weymouth defence. A long ball was played into the Weymouth circle that failed to find a Salisbury forward.

Keeper David Civil allowed the ball through, expecting it to go out for a defensive hit, but it instead rebounded off the face of the left post straight into the path of a forward for a tap in.

Shortly before Westlake’s injury Salisbury took the lead, this time with a brilliant bit of link-up play. Some neat one-touch passing led to a fine goal.

For the final moments of the first half and the rest of the game, Harvey replaced Westlake at centre-back meaning Wey-mouth were then without substitutions.

Much of the second period took place in the Weymouth half but despite the high percentage of possession the hosts created very few clear-cut chances.

They did capitalise on one opening however, again cutting through the defence with neat passing, but the space that lead to the goal could be put down to disorganisation by the Seasiders.

The score remained at 3-1 for much of the second half with neither side looking like scoring, but within the last 10 or so minutes Weymouth began to up the pressure.

They managed to grab a goal with minutes to go, again from the same penalty corner routine, however this time Fry did not manage to get a touch on the ball.

His pressure instead caused a Salisbury defender to deflect the ball home and the goal was given to Bowles for his intended assist. But Weymouth could not find a leveller in the few remaining minutes and the score ended at 3-2 to the hosts.

Weymouth host bottom of the league Gosport tomorrow.

Goals: Christopher Fry, Daniel Bowles

Man of the Match: Daniel Bowles