Havant III 2-2 Weymouth

Weymouth grabbed a share of the points to keep their promotion hopes alive with a last-minute equaliser at Havant.

The Seasiders travelled to Havant on the back of a win last week but faced full-strength opponents on a difficult pitch.

The visitors started the game well, controlling the ball at the back though Mike Westlake and with some strong runs from Aaron Wilkinson creating chances against Havant’s young goalkeeper.

Weymouth might have taken the lead after 10 minutes when, after a miscued penalty corner, a pass back into the D found Patrick May who fired a reverse-stick shot high into the net, only for the goal to be disallowed — the ball adjudged by the umpire not to have travelled five yards outside the D to permit the raised shot.

Havant scored first on a breakaway with a long pass finding the centre-forward and the miss-hit shot looping over the diving David Civil in the visiting goal.

Weymouth continued to exert pressure on the home team and, just before half-time, they equalised from a penalty corner with a precision low-drag from May.

The away side continued to look dangerous from penalty corners, forcing a number of vital saves from the Havant keeper.

Despite this, it was Havant who took the lead again when another long pass into the Weymouth D took a big deflection off a Havant stick and wrong-footed the goalkeeper.

With time running out, Weymouth forced yet another penalty corner; executing a well-rehearsed set-piece, the pass across the goal from Dan Bowles was deflected into the goal by a diving Matt Underhill to level the score at 2-2.

Havant pressed forward from the restart but were unable to reach the Weymouth D before time expired.

With five games left to play, Weymouth play bottom club Bournemouth at home this Saturday knowing they cannot take anything for granted and cannot afford to drop points if they wish to remain in contention.

Man of the Match - Michael Westlake

Goals - Patrick May & Matt Underhill