Rare Raynes goal not enough for Terras win

A late Weymouth equaliser denied City victory in a 1-1 draw at Twerton Park this afternoon. Joe Raynes’ first goal for over four years had given the Romans the lead at half-time but substitute Touray lashed home a deserved leveller for the Terras with eleven minutes left. And the visitors should have grabbed all three points but for an incredible miss by Rollinson in the final minute.

The game took a while to settle but City began to enjoy the better of the play against the mid-table Dorset side. Cody Cooke couldn’t keep a 17th minute header down from a Ewan Clark cross then three minutes later Dan Hayfield appeared to be clipped in the area by Bearwish by the referee waved away the appeals. This was forgotten two minutes later when Tom Smith headed a centre back across goal toward Scott Wilson. He couldn’t divert it goalward but the ball dropped perfectly for Raynes to fire home from six yards. City couldn’t build on this advantage but, with Weymouth restricted to a handful of long-range efforts, they comfortably reached the break ahead.

They began the second half on the front-foot as Wilson curled an effort narrowly wide on 48 minutes. Two minutes later the ball broke to Smith and he raced clear but saw his shot well saved by former Romans keeper Harvey Wiles-Richards. Danny Greenslade also saw a long range effort blocked by Rowan before Smith’s dipping shot just cleared the bar. Having weathered this early pressure Weymouth began to get into the game as Will Buse turned away Rowan’s shot. A mix-up at the back saw Roberts fire over when well-placed then Buse was again called into action by Parson’s 25-yard effort. However, he could nothing to keep out Touray’s 79th minute shot from a narrow angle to level the scores. And Weymouth should have completed the turnaround a minute from time when Jordan Dyer deflected a Bearwish shot to the feet of Rollinson only for the striker to somehow slice the rebound wide of an unguarded net from a couple of yards out. There was still time for Dyer to produce a great recovery tackle to deny Touray another chance to win the game for Weymouth and ensure City picked up what could still be an important point in their play-off hopes.