Weymouth 1 Enfield Town 1
Report by Andrew Warshaw
The sickening frustration continues, this time with literally seconds to spare courtesy of another needless error which cost us dearly.
Having lost Lennon Peake to a worrying first-half knee injury and Xavier Benjamin to a straight red card – both potentially pivotal blows — Town were nevertheless on the verge of three crucial points, only to throw two away with virtually the last kick of stoppage time to remain stranded in the drop zone with Step 2 survival becoming ever more precarious.
Just like Bath City a week ago, Weymouth – who like us desperately needed the points — were there for the taking. In truth they hardly laid a glove on us. In fact their manager said it was the worst performance since he took over yet still we couldn’t get over the line in a low-quality encounter.
Town were unchanged from the Bath game and dominated possession for most of the match as well enjoying the better cearcut chances, few of them though there were.
From the off we curled crosses and corners into the Terras box but without being able to apply the finishing touch. Jake Hutchinson should have put us ahead early doors while Weymouth’s Jordon Thompson cleared off the line.
Much of our good work was down to Peake so it certainly didn’t help our cause when Rio Davidson-Phipps left him writhing in pain, ending his day and most likely ruling him out for several more to leave him thoroughly distraught as he left the pitch being consoled by teammates.
Lennon’s replacement Joe Payne was quickly into the action by rifling a long-range effort narrowly wide while Mickey Parcell did likewise.
H-T 0-0
The same pattern continued after the break with Town forcing three quick corners, the second of which was tipped over the bar by Will Buse.
Billy Leonard then drove into the keeper’s arms before Amaru Kaunda raced into the area, only to see his slashed shot rebound off the head of Youngs and spin just over.
As the game opened up, Youngs was presented with another effort, this time getting it wrong by firing high and over while at the other end Ibrahim Meite stung the hands of Rhys Forster who had enjoyed a relatively quiet afternoon but then had to make a flying stop from Ben Greenwood.
Cue an unexpected frantic finale. On 80 minutes Benjamin received a straight red for lashing out at Brandon Goodship before it was 10 apiece as home skipper Tom Bearwish picked up his second yellow.
Five minutes later Town thought they’d won it as Youngs converted a penalty, awarded for handball (pictured). Buse got a strong hand to it but couldn’t keep it out and all we had to do now was manage the last few minutes of regulation time and four more added on to secure a valuable victory.
But with virtually the final kick, Bailey Brown, instead of either lashing the ball out of the ground or passing it back to Forster who had called, allowed substitute Harrison Day to nip in front of him and was penalised for a senseless barge.
Softly awarded maybe but Jake McCarthy made no mistake by smashing the ball down the middle of the goal to give Weymouth a lifeline they scarcely deserved. There was hardly time to restart before the final whistle, leaving Brown inconsolable and the whole Town team devastated at having got so close.
“What Bailey did was at the stupidest thing I’ve seen in a long time because the game was done,” said a crestfallen Gavin Macpherson. “Lennon’s knee doesn’t look good and being without Xav for three games (after Eastbourne on Tuesday) is going to be tough but equally I can look at the top end of the pitch.”
“I said the same thing last week about the forwards. They show what they can do in training in terms of getting on the end of things but then go out and do something different on the pitch. Today was a killer, not in terms of the season but in terms of not getting the three points.”
Forster, Benjamin, Thompson, Hawkins, Leonard, Brown, Parcell, Youngs, Peake (Payne 29), Hutchinson (Whittaker 70), Kaunda (Beckles-Richards 74).