SALISBURY II 2 WEYMOUTH 1

WEYMOUTH suffered a narrow East Division defeat at Salisbury.

The visitors made a strong start in the first 15 minutes, with an early short corner strike which was saved by the opposing keeper.

The hosts went ahead against the run of play, after Weymouth had been pushing up the pitch.

This was a surprising blow to the away side, who then soaked up some pressure from a short spell of good passing from the Salisbury midfield.

The home side were motivated as they really needed a win to secure safety from relegation.

However, the Seasiders raised their game again to keep the half-time score at 1-0.

Weymouth battled hard against some harsh stick tackles, but they were unfortunate again to go down to another goal early in the second half, when a long ball through caught their defence off their guard.

Weymouth lifted their game and for the remainder were the more dominant side, with good, short passing.

Decisive tackling and driving runs from sweeper Anneka Rogers, helped to put the Salisbury defence under pressure.

Some excellent attacking runs from Lily Young and Emily Austin also led to Weymouth being awarded numerous short corners.

The Salisbury defence became more frustrated and under pressure as time went on, and Weymouth’s determination was rewarded with a penalty stroke after a flick-on from Emily Sauven hit a defender on the head just in front of goal.

This was converted with precision and power by Lynda Drewitt. With just five minutes left, Weymouth were so close to getting an equaliser, but it was not to be their day.

It was a disappointing result, but was always going to be a tough game, with Salisbury needing to win to stay out of the relegation zone.

Weymouth remain in mid-table with one game to go.

Player of the Match: Lily Young

WEYMOUTH II 5 BOURNEMOUTH V 1

THERE was a five-star show from Weymouth as they beat Bournemouth in Channel League Division Two.

The Seasiders started the game as they meant to go on, with strong driving, which kept the majority of the play in the opposition’s half.

In the 10th minute, the Seasiders opened the scoring when a powerful strike from Jo Ray found Caitlin Dive lurking in the D who fired home.

This pattern of events was repeated moments later with another goal from Dive.

Weymouth kept the pressure up during the second half and quickly converted a short corner, to add to Dive’s tally.

The fourth goal then trickled in with a cheeky deflection from Liefy Hendrikz.

With a hat-trick already in the bag for Dive, great play from Megan Taylor set the former up to achieve her fourth goal and player of the match award.

Bournemouth kept battling and earned themselves a hard-fought consolation in the dying seconds.