WEYMOUTH captain Jake McCarthy spoke of his pride at leading the Terras out last season and hopes to continue as skipper into the coming Southern League South campaign.
McCarthy, a former Bournemouth commodity, is expected to serve Weymouth at both centre-back and central midfield this term as Mark Molesley’s men bid to improve on the fifth place they achieved last season.
Elaborating on his time wearing the skipper’s armband, McCarthy admitted he had “learnt a lot”.
He told Echosport: “It was a really good experience, but just falling short hurt at the play-offs.
“I’ve learnt a lot about a different style of football in a different league. As a captain I feel proud of what we achieved.
“This season we’ve kept the majority of the players together. We can only kick on, go one better and go up.
“Last season I was really proud to lead the players out and I hope to continue that.”
With pre-season preparations going well, punctuated by a 6-0 loss to Bournemouth Under-23s, McCarthy was buoyant ahead of the new term.
He said: “It’s all gone really well so far. We’ve done our testing and all the boys have done well in that. Meeting all the new lads, they’ve all been good.
“They’re all good personalities and good players so I’m looking forward to seeing how they get on as the season progresses.
“We always knew it was going to be tough against a Bournemouth side. They look to get the ball down and they train every day so they’re a lot more fit.
“We want to go into every game and win it. We haven’t as a group been beaten by that many goals before. In the context of it, it’s all about pre-season and getting to grips with the formation and things.
“At the end of the day we don’t go out to lose a game – we want to win every game.”
With two clear positional roles for McCarthy set for varying occasions this season, the Terras’ leader feels comfortable in either.
“I spoke to Mark and he said I’ll be used in either position, it just depends on the opposition.
“He likes me at the back because I can step out and feed the more attacking players and in midfield to win headers and recover it.
“I can play in either position, whatever will help the team – that’s the end game,” he said.
On the subject of Weymouth’s next pre-season friendly game at home to Kingstonian on Saturday (3pm), McCarthy believes each member of the Terras’ squad is grappling for a place in the starting line-up.
He said: “We want to win the game and show a good account of ourselves.
“Everyone is fighting for a space in that starting XI at the first game of the season. Hopefully the result will follow.”
