Battling Thurrock
Thurrock earnt their three points the hard way with a battling performance against a good Weymouth side. Tresor Kandol came back into the Thurrock side after illness replacing Kris Lee, who dropped to the bench. Terra’s manager Steve Johnson had a new look side with four of his team making their first appearances at the Wessex Stadium. Fleet were expecting a tough game against a team that has vastly improved since its loss at Ship Lane earlier in the season with Johnson taking Weymouth into touching distance of a playoff place. The conditions did not favour good football with driving rain and the pitch cutting up considerably. Thurrock came out of the blocks quickly and Kandol was put through by Glenn Poole but the onrushing Jason Matthews made a good save. Weymouth, however, started to put the pressure on. One ball was played over Dave Collis’ shoulder and had the full back in trouble until Richard Goddard’s well timed tackle put the ball out for a throw in. Minutes later another well timed tackle by Goddard was adjudged to be a foul by referee Anthony Biddulph much to the disgust of the Thurrock defence. Danny Byrne compounded the decision by bending the freekick around the wall and past the unsighted Billy McMahon and into the bottom left hand corner of the goal. Thurrock responded with good attacking football, using the pace of wingers Cliff Akurang and Poole although neither seemed to be able to play the killer pass. After half an hour Thurrock thought they had an equaliser. Poole’s speculative 20 yarder was blocked into the path of Kandol who flicked the ball over Matthews as he tried to rush him. The linesman had other ideas and flagged Kandol offside when he looked to be level with the last defender. With five minutes of the half left Thurrock should have had a penalty. Weymouth defender Matt Bound was pulling the shirt from Kandol’s back in the box, but the referee decided it was not worthy of a spot kick. In first half injury Thurrock did get a penalty. This one was more dubious, Akurang’s shot was charged down a defender who then tried to shield the ball to safety but, the referee adjudged that a hand was used and Poole dispatched the penalty hard past Matthews. The half time blew seconds later and it took the referee over a minute to leave the pitch as he was dealing with the protestations of the Weymouth backroom team. Thurrock knew the second half would be a tough affair and were under pressure from most of it. Weymouth, however, decided that they would play long balls up to Thurrock’s big defensive partnership of McFarlane and Goddard who won almost every header. Thurrock’s winner came with ten minutes left and was a moment of quality. Colin McBride had a big part to play with a very inspired substitution, bringing on Kris Lee to replace David Lee. Kandol broke away with the ball and turned inside, Akurang was flying up the pitch and stole the ball from Kandol, beat one defender, looked up and crossed left footed, Kandol arrived in the box and pulled both defenders near post leaving Kris Lee to volley home from close range his first touch of the ball. Weymouth tried to pressure again but Thurrock kept clearing their lines and Weymouth never really looked like scoring with both Heffer and Kirby exceptional in the Thurrock midfield. Man of the Match: Richard Goddard Thurrock: McMahon, Collis, Goodfellow, McFarlane©, Goddard, Heffer, Kirby, Akurang, Poole (Lawrence 89), D Lee (K Lee 79), Kandol (Parker 89) |