WEYMOUTH 4 TROJANS 3

WEYMOUTH returned to form after a disastrous performance the previous week away to Southampton University.

The hosts started well with Luke Drewitt and Pat May in particular looking very lively, but despite the hosts starting the brighter it was Trojans who opened the scoring from a penalty corner which was miss-hit but still found an attacker at the back post who swept home.

The Seasiders then began to press the visitors higher, which paid dividends almost immediately when Pat May intercepted a pass out from defence, beat a player and coolly finished with a reverse hit shot into the bottom corner to level the game.

Centre-back Michael Westlake then joined the fray, which moved Simon Harvey and Luke Drewitt into more attacking roles.

Some neat passing down the right from Harvey and Drewitt helped Weymouth take the lead as the latter played the ball to Aaron Wilkinson on the attacking baseline who picked out Andrew Stiles on the penalty spot to slot home a well-worked team move.

Unfortunately for the hosts, the Trojans drew level with seconds left in the first half as their striker left goalkeeper David Civil helpless.

The second half began as a very cagey affair with neither side settling in the first few forays.

The deadlock was broken after 10 minutes of the second half when Weymouth countered quickly.

Daniel Bowles threaded one of his famous misdirected passes to midfielder Matt Underhill who turned past a defender on the edge of the circle and fired a reverse hit cross to Aaron Wilkinson who finished comfortably on the back post.

The hosts then increased their lead to 4-2, when they won a penalty corner which produced a good save from the Trojans’ keeper, but the ball rebounded to Harvey who made no mistake in bundling the bouncing ball over the goal-line.

The hosts were then reduced to 10 men for a period when Luke Drewitt was shown a yellow card for not retreating after committing a foul, Weymouth captain Wayne Membury complained to the umpire vociferously, but to no avail.

Weymouth managed to negotiate the suspension period without too many problems.

It was, in fact, when the Seasiders were returned to a full complement of players that the visitors struck back, with a goal that keeper David Civil would rather forget.

Trojans took a quick free hit from outside the 23-metre line which was fired into the circle where it took a faint deflection off an attacking stick.

Civil was unaware of the touch in the circle and allowed the ball to pass into the net, which was promptly given as a goal, which set up a nail-biting last five minutes that Weymouth were able to navigate uneventfully to take the three points.