Weston Super Mare came and took all of the points in a game where the home side didn't deserve to lose, but failed to do enough to trouble Ryan Northmore in the visiting goal until well into the second half.
Things started promisingly with a Matt Warner set-piece, following a foul on James Taylor, but Northmore gathered comfortably under the crossbar.
The visitors almost profited from a misguided header by Joe Dolan, Marvin Brown intercepted ahead of Ade Olayinka and cut back to Marc McGregor to drive just wide of Stuart Searle's left hand upright from 23 yards.
It was McGregor and Brown who combined again to put the visitors in front after 14 minutes with a goal which came inspite of Searle's best efforts to save the initial strike.
Aside from an Andy Ottley free-kick which flashed across the face of the goal, there was little quality from either side in a tedious first period. The tendency to play hopeful long balls towards Taylor and Peters merely resulted in frustration, and misplaced passes.
The second half began with a chance for the visitors to double their lead. Awarded a free-kick just inside their own half, Brown clipped an intelligent pass over the top for substitute Darren Hawkin to run on to. Clean-through on goal, but his attempted lob on the run drifted harmlessly wide of the goal from 20 yards. Defender Lee Jarman also had a set-piece effort which evaded all and sundry from the corner of the box, but never troubled Searle.
The introduction of debutant Simeon Howell added some drive to the midfield - which was severely lacking up to that point. For the first time in the match, home midfielders were getting ahead of the ball, and Ben Surey fired a first shot in anger on goal (albeit wide of the target) from outside the box following Francis Quarm's pass. Quarm himself produced a surging run, and a shot which beat the keeper from 22 yards, only to see his effort crash against the angle of post and bar and away for a goal kick. With time running out, Town finally managed to exert some pressure on the Weston rearguard action, and Taylor crashed a header against the near post from Warner's corner with 13 minutes remaining. The last minute saw more belated goalmouth action, but first sub Ben Wright - who worked a shooting chance from Surey's through ball - was denied by an excellent save by Northmore, and then Joe Dolan's header from David Ray's corner was headed away off the line by Jarman.
The frustrations of the home crowd were vented at the final whistle, partially towards referee Ron James who played a few seconds of stoppage time when injuries and substitutions should have meant a minimum of three, notwithstanding the rather casual attitude of Northmore with the taking of goalkicks to run down the clock.
The reality though, was that the Dragons failed to put on a display to get the crowds back, and lacked a cutting edge in the final third until it was too late. Weston were happy to sit back, even more so after grabbing an unexpected lead early on. The result from there on in seemed to have an air of inevitability about it. |
