MERE TOWN 0 WEYMOUTH RESERVES 2

WEYMOUTH Reserves manager Jake Richmond claimed his side had “laid a ghost to rest” after extending their winning run to five league games.

A cool finish from Josh Tennant after 55 minutes followed up by Sean Zima’s late spot-kick meant the Terras, who have now kept three consecutive clean sheets in the division, edged out their seventh-placed opponents on a tricky playing surface.

“We got thumped there 7-2 last season so it was nice to go back and get a win,” Richmond told Echosport.

“If you had said to me we would keep a clean sheet no matter what I would have taken it, because we went there last year and it was probably my most embarrassing day as a manager.

“I don’t bear a grudge against Mere but I set out a little mission that if we have done poorly at a ground last season I wanted to go and correct it.

“My own little personal aim was to make sure we got something out of the game and we really deserved it to be honest.”

Weymouth struggled to find their feet and adapt to conditions early on and goalkeeper Ryan Park produced a superb reflex save for the visitors on 20 minutes.

The covering Aston Butcher reacted quickest to hook the follow up attempt off the line.

But after finding the net when offside six minutes before half-time, Tennant opened his account for the afternoon on 57 minutes, converting Zima’s ball across goal to put Richmond’s men a goal up.

And with nearly the last kick of the game, Zima kept his head from the spot after Syzmon Matuszewski, who made an appearance in the Dorset Senior Cup for the first-team in midweek, was felled in the area.

Richmond added: “We could have done with getting a cushion before then.

“When it’s 1-0 and you’ve had a lot of pressure and chances you think it could come back and bite you.

“The whole team took every comment on board throughout the second half, they put everything right and we fully deserved the win.”

And Richmond indicated that, in his opinion, defender Butcher was the top performer for his side.

“He (Butcher) won absolutely everything – every header, every tackle,” the reserves’ boss added. “He was absolutely outstanding.”

Terras: Park, Sharpe, Harvey, Butcher, Anstey, Hind (J Will 70) G Will, Nichols (Czerski 80), Tennant, Matuszewski, Zima