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Super six for Weymouth as they wallop Slough Town
JASON Matthews’ Weymouth charges gave him an anniversary in management to remember, as they cruised past Slough Town at the Bob Lucas Stadium.
The Terras’ boss, marking his second year to the day in the job, had an afternoon in the dugout he will never forget as his side played with a real swagger and totally outclassed the Rebels, who had previously come into the game in good form.
The big news before the game for the Terras was that Stewart Yetton was dropped to the bench and, as expected, Pat Baldwin missed out of the squad through injury and was forced to watch from the stands.
That meant Billy Lowes came into the Weymouth starting XI with midfielder Mark Molesley, Chris McPhee featuring at centre-half.
Weymouth faced up to a Slough Town side that had been in fine form in league action following a troublesome start to the campaign.
The Rebels had won 10 out of their last 16 league fixtures going into the encounter, including taking seven points from their last three outings.
Powerful frontman Charlie Mpi provided the Rebels’ main attacking threat up front. The hitman had scored in the visitors’ last five games in the league.
And, in blustery conditions, the first chance of the contest fell to the Terras.
Going into the breeze in the opening period, Adam Kelly burst forward and his surging run allowed him to link up with frontman Ben Thomson and take the ball inside the area. It was eventually cut back for Chris Shephard, who blazed over.
Mpi then showed his striking credentials when he bounded onto a ball from deep to put pressure on Weymouth’s loan stopper Andy Dawber, who sliced his clearance into touch. Slough then made an early change as Nathan Webb was replaced by Kensley Maloney.
Former Accrington keeper Dawber then showed his pedigree as he strongly punched clear from a Slough corner and then comfortably held the return delivery that was put back into the box. That came after a defensive error almost let in Slough’s Ed Smith.
Moments later, Weymouth’s Dean Evans was teed up nicely on the edge of the area, but his daisy-cutter was easily stopper by Mark Scott in the Rebels’ goal.
Evans got it just right second time however as Weymouth took the lead after 29 minutes.
After Thomson battled for the ball inside the area, it fell to the former Paulton Rovers man, who rifled a left-foot strike which whistled into the top corner from 25 yards to set the ball rolling.
And after getting the breakthrough, Matthews’ men ran riot.
They got their second just past the half hour mark as Mark Cooper galloped forward and deftly lofted the ball over keeper Scott, with Thomson following up to bundle the ball home and claim the goal.
Thomson also did not have to wait too much longer to get his second as he found the net after 34 minutes.
Kelly found room in a dangerous area and played a neat ball out to Shephard. His pin-point delivery was smashed in by the striker to make it a treble for the hosts.
With Weymouth dominant as the first half ended, Shephard came within inches of making it four after he swept the ball just wide from Kelly’s centre.
But, with just 90 seconds gone after the break, Shephard got his goal and put the game to bed, sliding a shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
Dawber was then almost caught out as he tried to take the ball past striker Mpi and, somehow, Calvin Brooks got back to clear and save his stopper’s blushes.
Cooper then did get his goal in what was possibly the move of the game with Shephard, resulting in the full-back finding the top corner past a sprawling Scott making it five.
Rigg then shortly replaced Molesley and ran on to a ball in the left hand channel to finish for number six with more than 20 minutes to go.
The afternoon went from bad to worse for the Rebels when they were then reduced to 10 men as substitute Maloney was given a straight red card by referee Aaron Moody for a challenge deemed reckless on Rigg.
Dawber did however not go home with a clean sheet though, as Slough striker Smith pounced 12 minutes from time for the away side, but it was not to take the gloss off what was a special performance from the Terras.
