TWO goals in a dominant opening 15 minutes were enough to secure Hornchurch their third consecutive win, but a series of wasted opportunities — including a second-half penalty miss — meant that they had to endure an anxious last five minutes as Weymouth belatedly mounted a challenge.
After guiding under-funded Dagenham & Redbridge into the Nationwide Conference and twice to within touching distance of the Football League, Garry Hill, the manager, moved across East London earlier this year. Hornchurch, funded by a local businessman, have provided Hill with the financial resources that were lacking at Dagenham but with those riches comes added pressure.
“There is a lot of expectation down here and we are doing our best to satisfy it,” Hill said. “There is one club in every division that has more financial muscle and there is no doubt that we have that here. What we have got to do is handle the pressure that comes with that.”
Lee Matthews opened the scoring after six minutes, the centre back adding the finishing touch to a header by Jamie Stuart. Lee Elam and Wayne Purser snubbed opportunities to increase the advantage before Steve Claridge restored parity from the penalty spot.
It took the home side only three minutes to edge back in front. The impressive Purser — a recent £5,000 acquisition from Leyton Orient — scored from close range after Jason Matthews could only parry Kirk Jackson’s powerful drive.
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“We should have been three or four up in the first 15 minutes,” Hill said.
HORNCHURCH (4-4-2): M Westhead — S Gooding, L Matthews, J Stuart, D Searle — S Clarke (sub: D Shipp, 69min), D Caskey (sub: A Harris, 69), S Carey, L Elam (sub: J M Sigere, 61) — K Jackson, W Purser. Substitutes not used: S West, A Bayes.
WEYMOUTH (4-4-2): J Matthews — S Tully, N Bunce, D Waterman, P Gibbs (sub: C Eribenne, 75) — R Pethick, M Barlow, S Wilkinson (sub: P Buckle, 59), A Wilde (sub: I Hutchinson, 68) — S Claridge, L Phillips. Substitutes not used: M Bound, J Impey. Sent off: Matthews.
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Referee: M Ives.