WEYMOUTH RESERVES 5

ROMSEY TOWN 1

WEYMOUTH Reserves recorded an easy win against visiting Romsey Town at the Bob Lucas Stadium despite a lacklustre first-half show, writes Andrew Livingston.

After initially conceding from a header, the home side impressed in the second period to fight back to win.

Will Gape began the goal-fest with his equaliser early on after the interval, followed by Sean Stewart, whose shot trickled under the keeper to give the Terras the lead.

The final 30 minutes were completed with two goals from Sanchez Jansz-Baker and a tap-in from his replacement in Paul Ford.

However, during the first 30 minutes, Terras’ keeper Ashley Weeks was the busiest player on the field, being called upon twice to make vital saves.

Despite the early pressure from the visiting team, the game remained level and Baker was unfortunate not to give the home side the lead as he was deemed to have been in an offside position before he slotted his shot into the back of the net.

As time drew closer to the break, Weeks’ concentration dropped as he couldn’t claim a cross from a free-kick.

The resulting header ricocheted off the crossbar for a free Romsey head to guide the ball into the net.

Thankfully the comfortless first-half performance was brushed aside as a different looking team came back out, and it was not long after kick-off when Stewart put a ball behind the backline for Gape to run on to and place round the Romsey keeper to level the game

Moments later, the keeper’s day got worse as Stewart’s tepid shot from three yards out crept underneath his sprawling body and into the net.

Baker quickly followed with his two goals, the first a rifling shot from just inside the box which whipped into the back of the net, subsequently succeeded by an easy shot into an open goal which the defender on the line couldn’t keep out.

However, minutes later he was substituted for Ford, who once on, scored another easy tap-in in the dying minutes of the match to secure the win.

After the game, Terras’ manager Bradley Asagba insisted he didn’t have to say much at half- time.

He said: “The bottom line was that we were playing within ourselves. We knew we were going to be a bit slow off the blocks and it was about managing the first period of the game, which we did, apart from the goal which was unfortunate.”

Looking forward into the New Year, Asagba spoke with optimism.

He added: “I think it’s well documented that I think we have a good squad, probably a squad that should be higher in the league, so we have ambitions to climb the league.

"Hopefully going into the New Year we’ll get some of our injured players back, maybe and add one or two to the squad that I’m working on at the moment.”

Terras: Weeks, James, Sa, Jackson, Butcher, Will, Jansz-Baker, Gape, Turner, Stewart, Jevon, Wood. Subs: Ford, Beals, Panesar-Dower, Ayley