Mark Molesley has said that his side have nothing to lose going into tonight’s Buildbase FA Trophy third qualifying round replay at St Albans City tonight.
A 1-1 draw at the Bob Lucas Stadium on Saturday has set up a replay at Clarence Park tonight, a game which the Terras boss has said the team can be excited about.
Weymouth took the lead in the first-half on Saturday when a Jake McCarthy strike zipped into the back of the net.
Speaking to theterras.com Molesley said he felt that his side should have gone into half-time with a larger advantage.
Molesley said, “I think after such a good first-half then you should feel slightly deflated after not winning the game.
“The second-half was even but the first-half I felt that we were very good, I thought we played some excellent stuff and created numerous chances and we were a bit disappointed to just go in 1-0 up.”
St Albans City hit back immediately after the break when Soloman Sambou rifled an effort past Lloyd Thomas to equalise for the Saints.
Molesley added, “It was a bit of a sloppy goal from our point of view, but it was a fairly even game in the second-half.
“St Albans are a good side and I think that we can take a lot of confident from the fact from our first-half performance and that we matched them in the second-half.
“From our high standards, we don’t want to be just matching teams; we want to be slightly better.”
Despite protests that there was a handball in the build-up to St Albans’ equaliser Molesley said that his side can’t use this as an excuse for not dealing with the effort.
“It’s bounced up near his arm and it does look like he half controlled it with his arm,” Molesley continued. “Maybe we didn’t get that rub of the green from that decision; but it’s no excuses from me, we should have defended it better anyway whether it was handball or not.“
The Terras are currently in the middle of a busy spell of football with tonight being their third Tuesday evening playing in a row. Molesley said he felt that this could have had an impact on their second-half performance last Saturday.
“We’re having a lot of football at the moment and maybe the energy levels weren’t quite where they usually are in the second-half.
“No excuses though, it feels like we’ve let a victory slip out of our hands. Although there are plenty of positives to take from the game, especially that first-half I was delighted with.”
“We probably gave up a few too many chances in the second-half, having said that I feel we created an equal amount. In the first-half we created a lot more, so if anything we should have gone in a bit further ahead and then maybe we wouldn’t be looking at a draw.”
When quizzed about tonight’s squad selection Molesley said “We’ll pick the fat out of the game and see how the players recover and go forward with our best foot on Tuesday.
“It’s one to get excited about again, we can go there with nothing to lose and we proved in the first-half what a good side we are, so we can be excited about going there.”
Weymouth’s record in FA Trophy replays just about favourites the Terras with 7 wins to 5 losses, two of these victories coming on penalties.
Although, Weymouth’s record in FA Trophy replays against teams higher in the football pyramid reads as 1 win to 2 losses. The sole victory coming against Havant and Waterlooville in 2011 when Matt Groves and Warren Byerley scored for the Terras in a 2-0 win at West Leigh Park.
Thank you to Bristol Exile for researching the statistics.
