WEYMOUTH SPORTS 4 Upwey & Broadwey 3 CHRIS Evans put a major dent in Upwey & Broadwey’s title aspirations as his hat-trick helped Weymouth Sports complete the double over their fierce rivals.

Upwey went into the Weymouth College clash knowing they could ill-afford any slip-ups in the race for Dorset Senior League glory.

And after an inspired performance from Evans, the title-chasers now face an uphill task in their quest for top spot.

Sports’ co-boss Chris Hicks though, was understandably delighted come the final whistle.

He said: “It was an excellent result and I was very pleased, especially considering we had quite a few senior players out.

“We were forced into quite a few changes but the lads did really well.

“However, the changes took their toll in the first 10 minutes as we took a while to settle and they were on top.

“Fortunately Chris took an early chance, which is something we haven’t managed to do of late, and we went 1-0 up against the run of play.

“They deservedly equalised within a couple of minutes, albeit somewhat controversially as they took a quick free-kick while Tony Wyatt was setting up his wall.

“That gave us a kick up the backside and as the half went on the more we got into it.

“Chris scored his second to put us in the right direction and then Robbie Rolls made it 3-1 at half-time.

“The scoreline flattered us a bit and we knew they would come at us. But we settled well in the second half and Chris finished off his hat-trick, so we were 4-1 up and looking pretty comfortable.

“We had two or three clear-cut chances to put it to bed but unfortunately we wasted those chances and almost paid the price.

“We invited them onto us and they snatched a couple of goals towards the end to make it tighter than it should have been.”

On the subject of his hat-trick hero, Hicks added: “Chris was excellent and he was the difference between the two sides.”

Replying for third-placed Upwey, who are a point adrift of the summit but having played more games than those around them, were Richard Frost, Darren Samways and Ethan Devaney.

Manager Steve Reynolds said: “We started well enough but we were awful for the rest of the first half and I gave the lads a roasting at half-time as there was no fight.

“I told some of them that they weren’t fit to wear the shirt and to be fair we went out and battered Sports in the second half.

“There was a blatant penalty on Sam Nichols that the ref got wrong minutes before the end but you can’t turn up for half a game and expect to win.

“As much as I wanted to win the game, it has probably done the players good as they will have a good look at themselves. Sports’ will to win put us in the shade.”

Sports: Wyatt, Hicks, Bessant, Dunlop, Thoday (Sturmey 65), Culpin, Austin (Stone 75), Thomas, Rolls, Evans, Quinton.

Upwey: Cowne, Porteous, Stewart, Anderson, Pearce, Samways, Frost, Kenderdine, Devaney, Bochonko (Nichols 75), Billings.