Tuatara see off basement boys (From Dorset Echo)

Tuatara see off basement boys

8:56am Thursday 4th February 2010 in Sport By Nigel Dean

TUATARA issued the perfect response to last week’s record defeat with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over a battling Galaxy Windows.

Chris Meadows’ men suffered a 7-1 home defeat to Eurosat Lions in the quarter-finals of the Dorset Intermediate Cup the previous week but hit back on Sunday to secure a Weymouth Carpets Direct Sunday Premiership victory over the basement boys.

For a long period in the first half, the visitors wondered if it was going to be ‘one of those days’ with offside decisions arriving like clockwork and Tom Grattidge being uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal.

Defensively, the unit of Matt Camp, Meadows, Andrew Stalker and Sam Roper was rarely threatened and they cut out any danger early, but frustration grew for Tuatara with three first half bookings for dissent.

Crucially, T-bar managed to break the deadlock before half-time with the impressive James Roper bund-ling home from Charlie Kenderdine’s corner.

The second half began with the T-bar once again attacking in numbers and creating chances aplenty.

Credit must go to home goalkeeper Pete Cowne who made a string of fantastic saves throughout before he was cruelly beaten by an unfortunate own goal following good work once again by Kenderdine.

Galaxy came the closest to getting something from the game between T-bar’s second and third goal, with Nath Waters’ powerful free-kick going just over the bar.

The third goal for Tuatara, and the one which killed the game, came with 20 minutes left on the clock.

Man of the match Kenderdine completed his hat-trick of assists when he put skipper Danny Dancer through to coolly slot home.

There was still time for further Grattidge frustration with shot after shot not finding its mark, but it is credit to him how often he created space for those chances.

Player-manager Meadows almost added his name to the scoresheet in bizarre fashion shortly after.

Having executed a crunching tackle on left-back Justin Yule, Meadows fluffed his lines with the cross, but the sliced centre suddenly looked goal-bound, before the fantastic Cowne tipped over.

A Simon Meadows header against the bar almost gave T-bar four, but they were pleased to go home with three points and a clean sheet.