14th January 2012

Dorset Premier League

Sturminster Marshall 3  Weymouth Res 3

Stur took on Weymouth Reserves at Churchill Close and overturned a two goal half time deficit to grab a point.

The first half hour was about as exciting as watching the Big Brother house with the sound turned off. In fact, the first scribble in my notebook refers to an incident in the 28th minute when a good interchange between the Weymouth front two saw the ball slid just wide of Adam Tong's left hand post. Joe Wood then went close to opening the scoring for Stur with a right foot volley.

Neither team had really looked like scoring but a defensive slip let in a Weymouth forward who made no mistake from close range. The Terras extended their lead just before half time with a cleverly taken goal and Stur looked to be stuck up a well known creek without any means of propelling their canoe.

The half-time team-talk must have been up there with Churchill’s “We will fight them on the beaches” speech because you would need the Starship Enterprise to quantify the difference between the first half performance and the second. Having struggled to create a single chance in the first half, Stur almost pulled a goal back five minutes into the second period when Darrell Williams teed up Lee Thomas, but a tremendous last ditch tackle robbed the Stur man as he was about to side foot into an empty net.

Tim Littler pulled a goal back with a thumping header from a left wing corner. The traffic was one way now and an equaliser looked inevitable. It came when Matt Jones directed a clever back header past the Weymouth keeper.

Stur were piling forward in search of a winner now, and so were vulnerable to the counter attack. Sure enough, with just a couple of minutes left, Weymouth broke and attacked for virtually the first time in the second half and scored what they thought was the winning goal. Their supporters certainly thought it was job done, but as it states quite clearly in the Book of Sod’s law – Chapter 10, verse 89 minutes – “And lo, after ye have jeered the last minute vanquished, so shall ye suffer by the same hand, and become the last minute vanquished”. Almost from the kick off, Stur attacked again and Luke Geddes found space in the box and lifted the ball over the advancing keeper to once again level the scores. Lee Thomas almost won it for the home side when he hit a powerful twenty yard shot. The Weymouth keeper managed to get his hand to the ball and everyone watched heart in mouth as the ball dropped just over the cross bar.