Third victory of the new season

Tough battle to secure three points

Weymouth Ladies 1st XI made it a tough battle to secure three points from their match against City of Bath on Saturday, going a goal down within the first five minutes. After a lot of jostling and through some gritted teeth, the home side won a short corner which was injected and then converted by Anneka Bowles, bringing the scores level at half time.

After a rousing half time team talk by coach Dan Bowles, the Seasiders went out for another tough, if sometimes fractious, 35 minutes of play. After sustained pressure and determination, Weymouth secured another short corner through speedy midfielder Niamh Houghton. A clean, pacey ball was delivered to Sophie Russell at the top of the D, and she powdered a strike towards the goal. The shot was initially blocked by a defenders leg, but then slotted home as Bowles deftly lifted the ball over the opposition keeper’s head into the back of the net. It wasn’t long before an amazing solo run from Jodie Stone saw the ball back in the visitors’ D again, this time struck by Stone herself and dinked in sneakily behind the goalkeeper by Russell to give Weymouth their third goal of the match.

City of Bath managed to put one past a slightly disorganised Seasiders defence to bring the score back to 3-2 with five minutes to go, but it was not enough and the home side saw out the remaining time until the final whistle without incident and continue their positive start to the season.

Player of the match: Jenna Bennett