WEYMOUTH RESERVES 5 HAMWORTHY UTD RES 3

WEYMOUTH Reserves produced a superb 70-minute performance at the Bob Lucas Stadium before allowing their opponents to score three times in the final quarter.

Luckily for Jake Richmond’s men they were 5-0 up by the time Hamworthy netted their first goal, though the Terras’ manager was alarmed at how the hosts fell away towards the end of the match.

“We were brilliant in the first half but not so good in the second,” he told Echosport.

“We played some very good stuff in the first half and were comfortable at the break.

“Keeping a clean sheet was the target for the second half, and although they came at us for the first 10 or 15 minutes, we scored again to make it 5-0.

“We were poor as a defensive unit after that and decided to let them have three goals.

“From three attempts on target for us they broke and scored.

“Decisions from people at one end cost us at the other and the last 20 minutes was not good enough from us.”

He added: “You’ve got to be pleased when you win 5-3 at home but we will have to work on our last 20 minutes in training.

“There are plenty of things we can do for that, but when it comes to decision-making you just have to keep drumming things into people until it becomes a habit.”

Josh Tennant had given the hosts the lead from a tight angle on six minutes, and then Szymon Matuszewski finished off a four-man move to score the second.

Another flowing passage of play in the 33rd minute ended with Jamie Beasley firing home from 12 yards, before Tennant bagged his second soon after.

Lee Sharpe added number five on 65 minutes after Gareth Will had hit the crossbar.

Then the Hamworthy fightback began, and Richmond gave credit to the visitors for the way they didn’t lay down.

“They were a very good side who tried to play the right way for the whole game,” he added.

“Their lads were a credit to their manager and the club, and though I wouldn’t say we were hanging on at the end, if it had gone on 10 more minutes then who knows what could have happened.”

With three of the top four in the Dorset Premier League not playing on Saturday due to waterlogged pitches, Weymouth's win saw them close the gap on the sides above them in the table.

They now sit three points behind fourth-placed Parley with a game in hand and eight adrift of leaders Merley Cobham Sports.

The same went for Portland United whose Grove Corner clash with Tintinhull, Weymouth's next opponents, was postponed, while the game between Bridport Reserves and Wareham also fell foul of the weather.

Terras: Park, Butcher, Staines, Poole, Anstey, Sharpe, G Will, Beasley (Czerski 50), Tennant, Matuszewski, Zima (Jones 80)