| Weymouth 3 St Albans City 1 | ||||
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An overnight break-in at Weymouth Football Club almost led to St Albans City having a wasted journey down to the Dorset coast on New Year’s Eve. Vandals are said to have ripped to shreds the goal-nets at Wessex Stadium and daubed slogans in paint on the goal posts. But what almost led referee Peter Lavelle to calling off the Southern League match was when it was discovered that all of the match footballs had been slashed with a knife. A local school came to the rescue and provided some of their own match footballs but it soon became evident that these were not up to Southern League standard and Saints manager David Howell felt that the sub-standard balls had a bearing on his teams’ 3-1 defeat. The opening goal, scored from 35 yards by Weymouth midfielder Stephen Reed, swerved viciously and left City keeper Nick Jupp completely flat-footed. “The strike for the first goal probably epitomised the use of that kind of a ball. It was there, it was gone, and Nick thought it was going over and then it dropped again,” bemoaned Howell. Away from the pitch damage within main stand at the Wessex is also to have led to flooding in the clubhouse, boardroom and dressing rooms. Weymouth’s other goals were scored by Sam Poole and James Coutts with Paul Furlong scoring for The Saints. Report couresy of St Albans Observer / David Tavener |
