But it was City who were left the more frustrated, as they were unable to capitalise on playing against ten men for more than half the game after Weymouth's Chris Shephard saw red just before half time.

His dismissal in what was a full blooded clash at times, came when he completely lost his cool following a midfield melee, just after Rob Farkins had given the visitors the lead.

The big defender struck after 37 minutes, firing home a deflected shot through a crowd of players when Weymouth failed with several attempts to clear a Danny Greenslade right wing corner.

It was his fourth goal of the season for Farkins.

But in the second half, despite having only ten men, the home side came out strongly, pushing City back and in the end were good value for their point.

Their pressure was finally rewarded after 65 minutes when the linesman controversially adjudged Greenslade had fouled Stewart Yetton from behind on the edge of the area with the home striker going away from goal and the former City favourite made no mistake from the spot for his 27th goal of the season.

And it was Weymouth who then looked the likelier to go on and get all three points to make it ten wins on the bounce, as City were put under considerable pressure and forced to play on the break.

But to their credit, Steve Tully's men again showed their backbone to dig deep and ensure they went home with at least a share of the spoils, as their six match winning run came to an end.

The game, watched by a boisterous crowd of almost a 1,000, was by no means a classic, but made up for that with the intensity shown by both sides with so much at stake..

City boss Steve Tully made just one change to his starting line up with Dan Green coming in for Arran Pugh with Shane White dropping back into the defence,

And in the first half it was City who held the upper hand, even if clear cut chances were at a premium in the tricky conditions.

No one could get on the end of a great cross from the right by Craig Duff, while at the other end Weymouth had a couple of shots blocked in a packed area.

But the deadlock was broken by Farkins to give City reward for their bright start and the dismissal of an enraged Shephard after he tangled with Duff, looked to have given City a great chance of going on to take the points.

However, a fired up Weymouth came out in determined mood at the second half, making light of their numerical disadvantage.

City were forced back and even though the penalty looked to be rather soft, there was no denying the home side's right to be on level terms.

Vassell almost regained City the lead but was agonisingly a whisker away from converting a Duff cross.

Shane Krac, who had earlier replaced Matt Wright for his first City appearance, also tested Matthews, while Barry Hayles and Les Afful came on late on for Isaac Vassal and Duff.

In a frantic finale, Weymouth came so close through Steve Colwell's shot which just missed the far post and in the end the visitors were glad to hear the final whistle as they stretched their unbeaten run to seven in what was always going to be a difficult match against a Weymouth side, who are unbeaten at home in the league this season.

However, it was a point apiece, leaving City still in fifth place, five points behind new leaders Corby Town, who are the next visitors to Treyew Road on Saturday week.

City have little time to rest as they are on the road again on Saturday when they travel to play Chesham Utd who beat them 3-0 on the opening day of the season.

Weymouth: Matthews, Wells, Wannell (Fiddes 60), McPhee, J Laird, Colwell, Kelly (Copp 79), Rigg, Yetton (capt), Sills, Shephard.

Subs (not used): West, C Laird, Will.

Yellow cards McPhee, Rigg.

Red card: Shephard

Truro City: Burns, White, Gerring, Farkins, Green, Ash (capt), Duff (Hayles 77), Greenslade, Cooke, Vassell (Afful 77) Wright (Krac 62).

Yellow cards: Cooke, Farkins, Ash.

Subs not used : Pugh, Moore.

Goals: Farkins (37) 0-1, Yetton (65) 1-1.

Crowd 980

Referee Richard Copp (Frome).

Steve Tully's man of the match Ben Gerring

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Weymouth match report:

Yetton to the rescue after Shephard sees red
By David Williams

TEN-MAN Weymouth claimed a deserved point against Truro City today, with captain Stewart Yetton scoring his fourth penalty in three games.
Yetton's second-half spot-kick brought the hosts level following a Rob Farkins strike eight minutes before the break.

The Terras were arguably the better side on the day, even with a player short after Chris Shephard was sent off late in the first period for lashing out at Farkins.

Player-manager Jason Matthews made two changes to the Weymouth side that started the victory over Arlesey, with Jamie Laird and Tim Sills coming in for Sam Poole and Alec Fiddes.

Truro featured a number of former Weymouth and Dorchester players in their squad and the only change for them after a 5-0 thumping of Bideford on Boxing Day saw Dan Green replace Arran Pugh.

Ex-Magpie Green was involved in the game's first flashpoint when he went in strongly on George Rigg, though there did seem to be a bit of a delayed reaction from the latter.

There wasn't much to separate the sides in the opening 10 minutes and the only threat on either goal came when Truro's Craig Duff fizzed over a dangerous cross that just eluded his team-mates in the middle.
The dearth of scoring opportunities continued as the match entered the second quarter and there was very little for the crowd to get excited about on a cold and breezy day.

That was until the 27th minute when City stopper Charlie Burns failed to deal with a ball into the visitors' area and only a last-ditch intervention by one of his defenders prevented a Rigg volley finding the net.

It didn't look the deadlock would be broken before the break, but on 37 minutes the Cornish outfit took the lead.

Weymouth failed to clear a corner, the ball dropped to defender Farkins and he rifled a shot past Matthews with the aid of a slight touch off a Terras' player.

Then, pretty much out of nothing, it all kicked off.

Shephard was shown a straight red by referee Richard Corp for his part in an altercation with Farkins that left the Truro man on the deck.

Chris McPhee picked up a booking following the melee that resulted in his team-mate's dismissal.

With the hosts clearly shaken by Shephard's sending off, Rigg was cautioned on the stroke of half-time for saying something out of turn to the Frome official.

The referee was having a busy afternoon and just two minutes into the second half he booked Farkins for hauling down Sills after the Terras' striker had got the better of him.

Sills then had half a chance to draw the home side level but his glancing header from Rigg's cross went wide.

At the other end, Danny Greenslade fired a free-kick just past Matthews' left-hand post and Isaac Vassell nearly converted an excellent Shane White centre.

Both sides then made their first substitutions of the encounter. Alec Fiddes replaced Jake Wannell for the hosts while Truro swapped Farkins for ex-Terra Shane Krac.

And just minutes after the changes were made the Terras found an equaliser.

Skipper Yetton was heading away from goal when a clumsy challenge on the edge of the City box from Greenslade saw the referee point to the penalty spot on the advice of his assistant.

And Yetton, who has been so deadly from 12 yards of late, coolly converted the spot-kick past Burns.

However, the visitors came within inches of regaining the lead seconds later, only for Vassell to just miss White's low ball across goal.

The last quarter of a largely disappointing game was just like the first - very few scoring opportunities for either side.

But credit has to go to Weymouth for the way they battled with 10 men, and they may even have won it in injury-time.

Yetton played in Steve Colwell down the left and his cross only just evaded a Weymouth player at the far post.

They may have missed out on a 10th straight Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division victory, but the Terras could take a lot of heart from this draw against one of their promotion rivals.