Weymouth 1 Hampton & Richmond 0

Three good wins over St Albans City, Weston-super-Mare and Chelmsford City have pushed the team up the table to safety and left them with what appears a comfortable run-in to the end of the season.

Yet the intrepid souls who journeyed to the south coast, in brightest sunshine and high spirits, returned home in darkest gloom after the team joined that most select of clubs; those beaten by Weymouth in 2009-10.

Only 4 other teams have joined this club and I doubt the Beavers will be proud of it. In no way can the team complain either, after this performance in a game that had 'meaningless, end-of-season' written all over it.

Injuries and other problems meant Dev had to shuffle his dwindling squad around further, recalling OJ to the centre alongside Dean Wells, pushing Dean Inman to right back and Barrie Matthews on the left.

The midfield saw Louis Rae Beadle on the left, Craig Dundas and Stuart Lake in the middle and Dave Tarpey out right, with Ian Hodges and Lawrence Yaku up front.

In goal Matt Lovett donned his black tracksuit bottoms, as some protection from what looked to be a very firm pitch.

The Beavers were the first to show some drive as Stuart Lake lifted a shot over the bar as early as the 5th minute, but a minute later, Dean Inman and Matt Lovett had a rare mix-up over clearing a Weymouth cross, thankfully Matt recovered enough to get a hand on the ball to keep it away from Evans who was lurked with intent to score at the back post.

Unusually for the Beavers, Lovett wasn't looking his confident self as he scuffed a punch away a few minutes later, which was hoofed clear. This was worrying.

What wasn't worrying was the fact that Dave Tarpey was showing a few signs of menace and after coming inside of his flank, he dragged a shot wide.

The Beavers came close to scoring after Tarpey once again came in off his wing, and this time found Ian Hodges, whose measured shot was cleared off the line by Tribe.

Both teams were making sporadic efforts to take the lead and after Dixon had forced Lovett into a save, Lawrence Yaku managed to force a corner which came to nothing.

The Beavers were getting plenty of free kicks around the box, and you could tell that the Weymouth fans were concerned Tarps might hit the target, but from two of them, Dean Inman and then Ian Hodges couldn't direct their headers on target.

On 26 minutes the referee decided he had seen enough and showed a yellow card to Foster, who while not the worst, had been niggling away at some of the Hampton midfield and finally a challenge on Hodges was enough for the caution. Tarpey's free kick from about 30 yards drifted wide.

For the next 10 minutes, the Beavers held the upper hand, but they couldn't turn this into a goal, the nearest was on 35 minutes when Tarpey's free kick was saved easily by Weymouth's young keeper Neish.

As the half time break started to appear on the horizon, Foster managed to create a chance for himself, but Matt Lovett wasn't really threatened by it and gathered it easily.

The Beavers had only just got settled after the break when, very much against the run of play, Weymouth stunned the crowd with a goal out of nothing on 50 minutes.

Radcliffe had made ground down the Terras left, and found himself enough room for a cross. Lovett slightly misjudged the height and could only get fingertips to the ball when at full stretch.

Unfortunately, this took it into the path of McGuinness, who despite a tight angle managed to score off a Hampton defender.

This took the wind out of Hampton?s sails for nearly 10 minutes and although Tarpey had another shot over from a free kick, the Beavers never really looked like getting back into the game.

With 20 minutes to go, Dev decided to try something, bringing off Lawrence Yaku and bringing on Karl Beckford in the middle, moving Craig Dundas up front.

It didn't have the desired effect, as Weymouth nearly doubled their lead on 72 minutes. The Terras broke out from defence, Reed finally finding Richardson free midway in the Beavers half.

Richardson's shot was just over Lovett but Dean Wells had tracked back into the 6 yard box and hoofed it away, saving the Beavers from worse than a single goal defeat.

Weymouth continued to press and Matt was called on to make two comfortable saves before Barrie Matthews managed to get a header on target with less than 10 minutes go.

By the time the game was drifting into added time, it was looking bad for the Beavers, but a free kick just off the right hand corner of the box gave them hope.

Dean Wells whipped it in, and Hodgey managed to direct his header on goal, but Neish was equal to it, and threw himself full length to divert it for a corner.

That was it for the Beavers and putting it bluntly, there's no wonder that Dev wasn't a happy man after the game.

The Beavers looked short of ideas and energy against a Weymouth side that had been demolished by all and sundry over the course of a season.

To an outsider, Hampton would have looked like the relegated team. The Terras worked hard for each other, and there was not much doubt that they still wanted the win as they were more committed throughout most of the 90 minutes.

There's a reasonable nucleus of players there who still want to play for them, and if they can get sorted out off the pitch, they should hold their own in the Zamaretto next season.

Lovett, Beadle, Matthews, Jeffrey, Inman, Wells ©, Lake, Dundas, Hodges, Yaku (Beckford 69), Tarpey.

Subs not used: Robinson, Quashie.

Bookings: None.