WEYMOUTH went so close against Blue Square Premier side Salisbury City, only to be beaten by an injury-time goal from Christopher Flood in this FA Trophy first round match.

Jake Reid and Josh Llewellyn wasted the two best chances either side had as the Terras threatened to cause an upset.

But with just over 91 minutes on the clock, Flood swivelled and drilled home a low shot from a goalmouth scramble in front of the travelling supporters to steal the tie.

Weymouth made just one change after failing to secure the loan deal of Exeter’s Scott Bennett in time to register him for the FA Trophy.

Instead, David Obaze was the only addition to the team that lost 3-2 at Braintree last week. He replaced teenager Jamie Frampton at the heart of the defence.

Salisbury lined up with a 4-5-1 formation, using highly-rated striker Matt Tubbs as the lone front man.

It took more than 10 minutes for the first effort to be had on goal, but that was hardly worth a mention as Flood smashed high and wide from 20 yards – that proved to be the only shot, on or off target, in the opening 25 minutes.

However, as the clock ticked into the 26th minute, Jake Reid should have added to his recent goalscoring record.

Chris Allen’s beautifully-crafted cross from the left with the outside of his right boot found the Terras’ top scorer unmarked 12 yards out but he completely miscued his header and sent it way over the crossbar.

At the other end, Flood headed tamely into the ground and straight at Ryan Harrison to record the afternoon’s first strike on target while the Weymouth custodian then had to be on his toes to tip over Sean Clohessy’s cross-cum-shot.

From the resulting corner Christopher Todd nearly bundled the ball home, but Harrison stood firm and dived on the loose ball.

Joseph Oastler was off target twice in the minutes leading up to the break and Tubbs went even closer – David Obaze needed to stretch out a leg and deflect the forward’s effort wide after Flood had played a neat little ball into the Terras’ penalty area.

In truth, the half was devoid of quality and although plenty of grit and determination was shown by a hard-working Weymouth team they were unable to put enough attacking moves together and lacked the quality needed from set-pieces to provide a danger to James Bittner’s goal.

Simon Radcliffe fired the opening threat in the second half when his shot deflected over off of Clohessy’s face.

Allen’s resulting left-wing corner was missed by everyone, allowing Matt Groves to fire in a shot at the far post, which was covered and blocked by visiting goalkeeper Bittner.

Weymouth continued to be the more threatening team and Llewellyn was left with his head in his hands after missing a glorious opportunity in the 53rd minute.

Reid strode through the middle and slipped in his strike partner, but even though Llewellyn slid his low shot beyond Bittner he also put it wide of the left-hand post.

The Blue Square Premier side only looked dangerous when Flood’s free-kick dropped at the feet of Bradley Gray, who shot straight at Harrison Oastler shot off target from long range for a third time in the match and the on-loan QPR midfielder was not any more accurate with his head as his looping effort from a right-wing cross dropped wide of Harrison’s goal.

Obaze beat Bittner to another Allen corner midway through the second half but nodded down and wide while at the other end Oastler failed to improve on his shooting ratio as his 20-yard strike deflected over.

Llewellyn clipped an effort straight into Bittner’s hands and Harrison easily gathered from Tubbs as the match began to build towards a climax.

The pressure bubbled over into a minor scuffle that ended with Allen and Clohessy receiving yellow cards in the 79th minute – skipper Scott Brice followed into the referee’s notebook seven minutes later.

Flood and Gray were not even close from distance as the visitors pressed late on while Jamie McGuinness needed to get his head on a cross with Flood seemingly destined to score otherwise.

However, Flood broke the Terras’ hearts in the second minute of stoppage time when he swivelled and fired home from six yards after Brice had initially blocked in front of his own goal.

Terras: Harrison, McGuinness, Slocombe, Obaze, Brice, Allen, Groves, Rose, Llewellyn, Reid, Radcliffe. Subs not used: Harris, Frampton, Dixon, Foster, Tribe.

Salisbury: Bittner, Sinclair, Clarke, Tubbs, Oastler, Todd, Gray, Webb, Ruddick, Clohessy (Brown 90+3), Flood. Subs not used: Cox, O’Hara Turley, Osman.