UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH 3 WEYMOUTH 7

IT WAS happy days for Weymouth as they travelled to Portsmouth University hoping to add to their victory the previous weekend.

On a hot, sunny afternoon they eventually overpowered the opposition with a 7-3 triumph.

Weymouth started strongly, scoring early when captain Steven Membury lifting a pin-point aerial pass to man-of-the-match Pat May, who rifled past the keeper to open his account for the day.

With the score at 1-0, Weymouth’s lead remained intact thanks to a reflex, instinctive triple-save from David Civil.

After their fast start, Weymouth let the home side back into the game with two goals.

A controversial penalty corner award and some poor positioning from keeper Civil allowed a shot in at the near post.

The opposition scored a second when centre-back Roland Gill misplaced a pass which was punished, as the opposition striker lifted the ball into the net.

The lead didn’t last long, however, as Weymouth began to take charge. Both of the away side’s full-backs began to enjoy some freedom on the flanks due to the solid platform provided by the veteran defensive core of David Beaudro, Gill and Civil. Weymouth’s second goal came when Membury fed Michael Westlake with another aerial pass to set up the first of May’s penalty corner conversions, as he flicked past the keeper to make it 2-2.

Weymouth then led for the second time in the game. First, Matt Underhill scored after an assist from David Eames, then Andy Styles stroked the ball home after a characteristic sleight of hand pass from Dan Bowles.

With the lead at 4-2, a comical moment allowed the university side to score with Underhill providing a massive assist for their third goal by laying the ball into the centre midfielder, who slipped in the centre-forward to score.

Underhill’s mistake was forgotten shortly after however, as a slick penalty corner routine saw Simon Harvey square the ball across the goal line beating the keeper for Luke Drewitt to ram the ball home.

At 5-3, Weymouth took total control and, when awarded a penalty stroke, captain Membury, coolly fired home to kill the game off.

The gloss was put on the victory with May powerfully dragging the ball into the top corner with the last touch of the game.

This was a powerful performance from Weymouth, who claimed a convincing win with excellent performance all over the pitch including young Ben Heckford deserving a special mention.