Mark Molesley insisted that the victory over local rivals Dorchester Town was ‘for the fans’ after Goodship’s late winner sealed the bragging rights for the Terras.
Weymouth ground out the win and had to wait until the 90th minute for the breakthrough when Goodship was on hand to dispatched the rebound from Yemi Odubade’s effort.
The victory was Weymouth’s third over Dorchester Town this season, and although the Magpies came close when Sam Jackson hit the post, it was multiple saves from Kingsley Latham which kept the game goalless for so long.
Molesley was delighted with the performance of his players and was pleased to see them return to winning ways after a disappointing finale against Harrow Borough the weekend before.
“It’s always tough a derby game, there’s a lot of extra things going on around you,” Molesley told theterras.com. “It’s a massive win for us after the catastrophe we had on Saturday against Harrow where we were quite comfortable at 2-0 and then ended up drawing the game somehow.
“It was a good bit of quick reaction, as quick as we can. Games like that are for the fans. Clean sheet, three points, we would’ve taken that before the game; we’ve delivered that, we left it late in usual Weymouth fashion. It shows that we are never down and sometimes our rewards do come late in games.”
Kingsley Latham was named as Dorchester Town’s man of the match, a decision which Molesley found hard to argue with.
“I think it was a tight game, their keeper quite rightly got man of the match, he made five or six fantastic saves,” he continued. “Two or three of them, he’s not only managed to save them but has held on to them too. For the goal he saved that one as well but fortunately Brandon Goodship was on hand to dispatch the rebound.
“I thought it was a good, entertaining game and we were delighted to get the win at the end.”
The kick-off was delayed by ten minutes as the large numbers of travelling Weymouth fans were still entering the Avenue Stadium. Molesley admitted that this delay did affect the players but couldn’t be used as an excuse for starting slowly when Ben Seymour had the first effort of the game.
“The delayed kick-off does affect the players a little bit, but we don’t look for any excuses, it’s the same for both sides. Everybody had done their warm up and was ready to play and then you’ve cooled down, you can try and keep them warm but you don’t want to overdo it.
“The game was never going to be easy, this was a tight affair, nobody wants to lose these games. The pressure was on out there, we had to stick to our guns, keep trying to play and probe.
“If some of the chances had gone in, we had fashioned three or four great chances in the first half, one or two of them go in and we’re in a good position. They didn’t and then it does get a bit hairy, it was end-to-end at times but I felt we were organised and resolute at the back and we did keep probing and looking for it and eventually we did get our breakthrough.”
Goodship’s 90th minute winner, and his 20th goal of the season, sparked scenes of wild celebrations at the Weymouth end, which included Molesley running down the touchline to join in himself. Molesley said that the current group of players are a ‘together bunch’ and it was a perfect reaction to the previous weekend.
“We are a tight, together bunch and we were all hurting from Saturday. We put ourselves in a fantastic position to get three points. There’s going to be plenty of ups and downs in football, we aren’t going to get the rub of the green all the time. We have a way of doing things, we stick to it and it has served us well so far, it got us out of trouble again.
“It showed how important the subs are, I think they gave us another little bit of impact. Yemi got in behind and forced a save which led to the goal, Thomson again was magnificent.
“It was a much improved Dorchester side to the one who turned up at our place in August. They’re young, energetic and have some good players, a couple of who have been on our books as well. It was always going to be a tough affair but it is one I’m delighted to walk away from with three points.”
Weymouth now turn their attention to table toppers Taunton Town, who they travel to on Saturday (3pm kick-off).
Molesley told theterras.com, “the next game is always the biggest game, and Taunton rightly-so now takes our attention. We can’t rely on anyone to do our dirty work for us, we are behind them and we are chasing. We’ve got to go there and do our utmost to try and pegged them back.”
