On a warm afternoon, the Seagulls couldn’t get anything from their clash with Hampton & Richmond, consigning the side to their first-ever relegation.
In a must-win clash, the Seagulls started brightly, zipping the ball about with purpose but with no end product in the box. Left-back Alex Byrne almost scored nine minutes in, but his effort from the edge of the area struck the post and rolled away to safety.
Hampton got the first goal however when forward Ruel Sotiriou, on loan from Leyton Orient, latched onto a bouncing ball and flicked it over Jake Lee. Through on goal, the young striker hammered into the roof of the net, leaving Weston with a mountain to climb.
Alex Bray fired over the bar as Weston looked for an immediate response, and Tyrell Miller-Rodney got the better of Jack Goodall before cracking a shot from an angle off of the crossbar as he steamed into the box.
Jacob Cane’s cross fizzed across the face of goal, with nobody in the middle reacting to the half-chance created by the skipper, and the central midfielder then went close himself as he won the ball on the edge of the Hampton area but saw his shot blocked.
Marlon Jackson had an early shot easily claimed by Ashley Maynard-Brewer in the Hampton goal, and Cane saw a shot blocked by the face of Casey MacLaren.
Bray drove at Oliver Sprague and made his way into the box, but his powerful drive was kicked away by the feet of Maynard-Brewer. Weston then had appeals for a penalty turned down as Tom Harrison’s shot was blocked by the arm of a Hampton defender, and was seemingly fouled as he tried to follow up.
Hampton killed the game off though in the last 10 minutes and consigned Weston to their fate though when Ryan Hill could drive into the box, and his left-footed shot flew over Purnell and nestled in the net, relegating Weston for the first time in their history.
FT: Weston 0-2 Hampton (Sotiriou 14, Hill 82)
Weston XI: Purnell, Goodall (Welch 78), Byrne, Cane (C), Lee, Harrison, Bray, Pope, Jackson, Llewellyn, Nurse. Unused substitutes: Harper, Lucas, Thomas-Barker, Ferguson.
MOTM: Jacob Cane – The skipper bustled about the centre of the park as usual, halting opposition attacks and trying to launch their own forays forward for Weston.