Game 32: Weston super Mare 1.0 Dorchester Town (Conf South) 01.01.11

The first day of the New Year and a limited selection of fixtures as many of the local leagues had decided to play matches on the Monday bank holiday to give their players a bit more time to recover from their excesses. I decided to take in the Conference South match between Weston-super-Mare and Dorchester. The two teams were supposed to play the week before at Dorchester but the game had been called off due to the poor weather.

After a straightforward ride up to Weston via Bristol on the train, I went for a wander into the town and had a bracing stroll along the pier which has been rebuilt since my last visit to the town in the 80's. After a quick bite to eat I walked back past the station and past some modern restaurants and superstores to reach the ground around 20 minutes later.

I had a wander round the ground which has one big metal terrace at one end and a couple of older looking stands and covers elsewhere. I decided to take a stroll to the open side and read the programme there while waiting for the match to start. Shortly before kickoff Paul and his mate Dave arrived and joined me on the sidelines.

The first action of the game saw the youthful Weston keeper land in a heap at the back post as he was challenged when trying to collect a cross. After a couple of minutes for treatment he was ok to continue but perhaps not as confident as he should have been for crosses in the area as he spilt the ball from a corner after 10 minutes.

There were some poor tackles in the early part of the game and tempers started to boil over in the 15th minute when a retaliation tackle from the Weston no 2 who took out the Dorchester 11 who had caught him with a sliding tackle a couple of minutes earlier. The players from both sides piled in to try and have a pop at their opponents and the referee had to act quickly to pull the players apart before issuing some yellow cards.

It took half an hour for the football to come to the fore as Dorchester carried the attack to Weston. It looked like they would score in the 33rd minute when the ball bounced from player to player in the area but wouldn't fall right for any of the Dorchester players to get a strike in on goal. In the 38th minute it was a similar story when the Weston goalkeeper flapped at a corner and missed the ball only for the Dorchester players to fail to get a shot in on target to capitalise.

Dorchester finally managed to get a shot on target in the 40th minute but it was cleared by a defender on the line. Weston appeared to be playing a 4-5-1 to 6-3-1 formation and rarely got the ball out of their half. They weren't prepared to commit men forward and any counter-attacks were mopped up by the Dorchester defence as a result.

At the start of the second half the attendance was given as 324. Weston were now kicking towards the big metal terrace to our left and almost managed a goal attempt as their no 9 broke the offside trap but couldn't get to the ball before the keeper who won the race and booted the ball out of play.

Dorchester were temporarily reduced to ten men in the 50th minute as their right back went down in agony on the touchline in front of us after what looked to be an innocuous challenge. The ball went out for a Weston throw and one of their players was furious that they couldn't take it, his argument to the referee being that the injured player was off the pitch so the game could continue. The referee was quite firm but fair in his assessment that it was not sporting to continue play when the player was in agony and his head was right on the line.

In the 54th minute Dorchester were unlucky not to score from a corner which was cleared off the line. The game was more entertaining than the first half as Weston started to push players forward. They made two attacking substitutions on the hour, including Kabba, a pacy striker, to try and get something from the game.

The chances were still failing to the visitors but they seemed to lack any quality up front to make them count. One player went through and dragged a shot wide when it seemed easier to score. On that occasion the assistant's flag for offside saved any embarrassment. Fifteen minutes later and a shot from outside the area flew over the bar.

Talk amongst us had turned to previous 0.0 games and we couldn't see where a goal would come from. It took a superb run in the 80th minute to break the deadlock. One of the Weston subs took the ball through the centre of midfield and dummied the two covering defenders before putting a pass to his right. The ball was perfectly set up for a Weston player to hit first time and his low shot went under the keeper and into the back of the net off the far post. As my previous 0.0 was way back in 2008, I have to confess to enjoying that strike as much as the home fans behind the goal!

With a couple of minutes to go Weston almost made the game safe as their substitutes combined to put in the scorer again, only for his finish to lack accuracy and sail wide of the far post. There was still time for a final booking as Kabba decided to pre-empt the referee's whistle for a foul by picking up the ball. He hadn't realised that from the referee's position he couldn't see the shirt pull and only saw a deliberate handball from the striker.

Not the best game of the season but at least it was a new ground and there was a goal to celebrate in 2011!