WEYMOUTH 3 POOLE TOWN 1

WEYMOUTH won for the first time since August with a comfortable victory over Wessex League champions Poole Town.

Jake Reid set the Terras on their way with a fine individual effort before former-Weymouth player Kevin Gill put through his own net.

Carl Preston, another ex-Terra, pulled one back before Scott Brice sealed the win with a close range header.

Jordan Vincent, Martin Slocombe, Nathan Loader and Matt Groves were all promoted to the starting 11 for this fixture.

Ryan Harrison was the first of the two goalkeepers to be called into action when he dived low to his right to hold Gill’s smart strike from the edge of the penalty area.

After a slow start, Weymouth slowly worked their way into the game and Chris Allen saw his deflected shot superbly pushed over the top right-hand corner by Poole goalkeeper Nic Jones.

That marked improvement was turned into a goal when Josh Llewellyn chested the ball into the path of Reid and the Terras’ top scorer ghosted past two players, outmuscled Jones and slid the ball into the back of net, despite the best efforts of a covering defender.

Weymouth had to deal with a strong response by Poole and were lucky to see Dave Sturgess miss with a free header before Harrison denied Stuart Brown from close range.

A torrent of rain greeted the players on to the pitch for the second half but after that subsided Loader put a free header wide and it needed a former Terra to double the home side’s lead when Gill bundled Vincent’s low cross into his own net.

Poole made a game of it with 20 minutes remaining when Harrison misjudged a ball over the top and allowed substitute Steve Smith to tee up Preston, another ex-Weymouth player, for an easy finish.

Groves’ fabulous half volley produced a flying save from Jones but from the resulting corner Brice doubled the home side’s advantage once again with a firm header from Simon Radcliffe’s delivery.

Radcliffe hit a post and Carl Foster smashed over late on but for once it did not matter that they missed the target as Weymouth celebrated victory.

Terras: Harrison 6, Vincent 7, Slocombe 7, Loader 7 (Rose 76, 6), Brice 7, Allen 7, Groves 7, Critchell (c) 7 (Nicholls 79, 6), Llewellyn 6, Reid 7 (Foster 74, 6), Radcliffe 6. Subs not used: Metters, Dixon.

Poole: Jones, Poore (c) (T Smith 46), Dovell, Lloyd, Whitley, Sturgess (Skelton 68), Gill, Hubbard, Cook, Brown (S Smith 68), Preston. Subs not used: Ackerman, Campion.

Attendance: 294

The Terras’ Blue Square South match at home to Woking has been arranged for Tuesday, November 17 (7.45pm).