BRACKLEY 3

Sandy 18, Diggin 49, pen 51

WEYMOUTH 1

Byerley 84

A SICKENING clash of heads saw Ben Gerring and Sam Poole both taken to hospital as the Terras experienced an afternoon to forget at St James Park.

The two centre-backs collided midway through the opening half but thankfully their injuries were not as bad as first feared despite Gerring having slipped in and out of consciousness for several minutes.

League leaders Brackley Town were already one up at that point and although Weymouth saw things out to half-time without conceding any more, two goals from Steve Diggin immediately after the break sealed the victory before Warren Byerley netted a consolation late on.

Brendon King made just one change to the team that started last Tuesday night’s 3-0 victory over Cirencester Town with Ashley Wells coming in for his first start in place of Ollie Tribe.

Alex Jeannin and Matt Groves were once again on the bench where they were joined by the returning Lewis Clarke, who missed the clash against the Centurions due to a knee injury.

High-flying Brackley were held to a 1-1 draw at Bashley in their previous game so they also made a switch with Diggin replacing Carl Palmer.

They also included Marvin Robinson on their bench, who scored four times in a 9-0 victory over the Terras just last season while playing for Hednes-ford Town.

As expected, Brackley made most of the early running with Diggin forcing Tom Manley into a couple of saves in the opening 10 minutes.

Craig Duff then attempted to slot in Mark Ford at the other end but Billy Turley was quick of his line to gather at the young striker’s feet.

Unperturbed, Town continued to look the more threatening side and on 18 minutes they opened the scoring when a ricochet in the box fell kindly to Elliot Sandy, who fired home from close range.

To their credit though, the Terras dug in and began to fight back, only to lose both their centre-backs just seven minutes later when Gerring and Poole collided in mid-air at a Stephen Reed corner.

After six minutes of treatment both men were eventually replaced by Jeannin and Tribe with an ambulance also being called as a precautionary measure.

When the action resumed, Brackley went close to doubling their lead through Glenn Walker, who smashed a shot against the bar after a fine left-wing cross from Owen Story.

The half then ended with another ugly coming together between Turley and Byerley, which once again led to both men requiring treatment.

That, and the earlier stoppage, led to nine minutes of added time in which Weymouth hung on to trail by just one going into the half-time break.

Despite showing great character in the closing stages of that opening period, the Gerring and Poole incident had still clearly taken a big toll on the Terras and within six minutes of the restart they were 3-0 down.

A slick counter-attacking move saw Diggin convert a cross from Story on 49 minutes before a mistake by Manley led to a penalty, just two minutes later.

The visiting stopper appeared to have everything under control when he came to claim Walker’s cross from the left but an uncharacteristic fumble led to him pulling down substitute Robinson in a desperate bid to try and regain the ball.

Diggin was the man that stepped up and he made no mistake with the resulting spot-kick.

King’s men could have easily dropped their heads after that, but after Diggin had headed over an opportunity to secure a hat-trick, the visitors rallied.

Substitute Clarke was denied by a fantastic last-ditch tackle from Eddie Nisevic before Duff saw an effort cleared off the goal-line as the Terras desperately looked for some sort of consolation.

It eventually arrived with six minutes remaining when Duff played in Byerley, who slipped past a tackle and applied a fine finish to chalk up his 17th league goal of the campaign.

Brackley: Turley, Clifton (Magunda 67), Nisevic, Mulligan (Robinson 49), Green, Kemp, Story (Palmer 82), Solkhon, Diggin, Sandy, Walker. Subs not used: Green, Myles.

Terras: Manley, Wells, Dixon, Napper, Gerring (Jeannin 31), Poole (Tribe 31), Duff, Beasley (Clarke 69), Ford, Byerley, Reed. Subs not used: Povall, Groves.

Bookings: Brackley – Clifton (foul 66), Solkhon (foul 86).

Weymouth – Jeannin (dissent 58).

Referee: Chris Husband (Worcester)

Attendance: 257