Weymouth are hoping to make it third time lucky when they travel to meet Tiverton Town on Boxing Day (3pm).
The Terras have finished second best to Martyn Rogers’ side already this season – a 2-0 league defeat at the Wessex Stadium and a 4-2 reversal in the FA Cup.
However, their chances of turning the tables at Ladysmead depend much on the fitness of midfielder-cum-striker, Mark Robinson who hobbled out of Saturday’s excellent stalemate at Stafford Rangers with a groin injury.
The former Gravesend man is rated ‘doubtful’ for the clash and so boss Geoff Butler must now find a new partner for Lee Phillips up front. And with both Julian Charles and Sean Adamson having today been released by the club, the role is almost certain to go to young Channel Islander, Marc Whiteman.
Butler explained: “I honestly don’t think Mark Robinson’s got a hope of being fit and that’s a big worry to us. He’s been outstanding since linking up with Lee and the pair of them would have been a handful for Tiverton. I’ve been a bit disappointed with Julian Charles because I expected a player of his calibre to do better at this level. It’s been difficult for him to get down for training from London each week and I just felt it was in the interests of both parties to let him go. It’s a similar situation with Sean Adamson in terms of the travelling, but it’s sod’s law that the minute I release them, I get landed with an injury to one of my front men.”
He added: “But Marc Whiteman has shown great improvement since that trial game against Yeovil the other week and I thought he did well again when he came on at Stafford. He scored a cracking goal up at Tiverton in the FA Cup and so if Mark Robinson fails to make it, then the lad will get his chance.”
A major boost for the Terras will be the return of the Browne brothers who missed the weekend excursion to Marston Road.
Simon comes back into the squad after serving a one-match ban, while captain Alex is expected to have recovered from a knee ligament injury.
“Alex seems to think he’ll be okay,” explained Butler, “and having him and Simon back is the sort of confidence booster we need. Their replacements on Saturday, Toby Redwood and Mark Kenway, were both outstanding and so it’s nice to have the luxury of a little selection dilemma. The result at Stafford was tremendous although to be honest I think we left a touch disappointed that we didn’t pick up all three points. But we’ll be going to Tiverton better prepared than we were for our previous two meetings and I really believe we can get a result up there. That would certainly be a terrific Christmas present and it would set us up nicely for the important visit of Grantham on Saturday.”
