Mark Molesley praised his patched-up Terras team for ‘digging out’ three points at the Camrose last Saturday.
Weymouth had to come from behind to earn their 2-1 victory in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division fixture against Basingstoke Town.
Speaking to theterras.com after the match, Weymouth manager Mark Molesley said that both sides gave the fan their monies worth. “It was hard-fought without a shadow of a doubt. It’s a massive three points for us, because we weren’t at our best, it was a real tough game.
“I think your admission fee would’ve been worth paying today because it was two sides going at it, it was end-to-end like a Basketball match. Fortunately for us we got the three points.”
Weymouth were already without Warren Bentley, Josh McQuoid and Ashley Wells, and then lost Callum Buckley through illness in warm-up. Josh Wakefield also had to pass a late fitness test before the game before being declared fit to play.
Molesley said that despite the win Weymouth weren’t at their best, “We were a bit off colour today at times, you can make excuses, and we had lost Buckley in the warm up through illness, so we had to have a reshuffle.
“We’d lost Ashley Wells earlier in the week and Josh Wakefield had to pass a late fitness test. We were a little bit patched up, we weren’t as organised due to that.
“But we can’t make excuses and we need to deal with that, that’s football and that’s part of this league, that not everyone is going to be 100% fit.
“I just felt that we were a little bit off colour and not quite ourselves, but you can still see the togetherness and spirit of the team because they’ve still dug out three points despite not being at their best.
“We created a lot of chances but so did they and we rode our luck a little bit. Too close for comfort for me as a manager so it gives us plenty to work on.”
Weymouth were able to welcome Ben Thomson back to the side as a late replacement for Callum Buckley, Molesley praised the former Frome Town man for his contribution which saw him named theterras.com man of the match.
“I think Thomson was the difference between the two teams today, he wasn’t meant to be starting. It’s his first game back after a long while out, he led that line today and he took his goal really well. Him and Brandon linked up brilliant.
“I’m delighted for him and really pleased he’s back out there. We have missed him because I feel he is different to what we’ve got. We have a great attacking line but he’s different to all of them, we’ve missed his physical presence up-front and he certainly showed that today.”
Molesley also took time to praise the sizeable travelling support who he said played their part in ‘cheering the boys home’.
“The fans were the old cliché of the twelfth man. We were getting stretched and pushed and we were struggling at times. They really sang their hearts out and I said to the boys after the game that we were here last year early on in the season and they were probably 20 people behind that goal, and you could see today that behind there was rocking.
“You could see that they know that the boys were out on their feet and that they were giving everything for the shirt. There might be a few mistakes here and there but they’re trying to do the right thing and the fans got rewarded.
“The boys were cheered on home and they gave us that little bit of energy just to hang in there. It was fantastic scenes at the end!”
Weymouth now turn their attention to the Buildbase FA Trophy where they face Street at the Bob Lucas Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Molesley paid tribute to Street’s good start to the season and doesn’t expect them to make things easy for the Terras, saying, “Every game has its own challenges, Street are going to come to us with nothing to lose. They’ve had a good win at Cinderford, who weren’t a bad side.
“They riding high at the top of their table, they’re full of confidence and they’ve got nothing to lose so the pressure will be on us. We’ll stick to the way we do things, we won’t change.
“I expect our boys to have a good week training and iron out any creases from today and try and be better next week.”
