WEYMOUTH director of football Paul Maitland says a tight mid-table favours the Terras ahead of their clash at home to ninth-place Swindon Supermarine in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier South.
Ordinarily, a team sitting ninth could consider themselves relatively safe, but such is the packed nature of the table that Supermarine are only eight points clear of 20th, and nine points behind Poole Town in the final play-off spot.
When asked if it was worrying how tight it is mid-table to bottom, Maitland replied: “No I think it is better, because normally what you find at this time of year is that teams are safe in mid-table so they cut budgets, they look at their younger players, the players themselves can drift a little bit and you suddenly get some results perhaps you wouldn’t have expected.
“When I say that, we possibly may go somewhere earlier in the season and you are playing against a side that at that point still fancies a play-off run or are fighting to get out of the bottom three.
“But then one of your rivals goes and plays them in March when they have got nothing to play for, do they have the same aspirations? You would like to think so but it does not always happen. So I think we are better when there is something riding on the game.”
Maitland praised Supermarine, who the Terras drew 1-1 with back in October as Calvin Brooks scored the goal for Weymouth, and he acknowledged ex-Terras’ goalkeeper Jordan Seabright’s performance.
Maitland said: “We are on a good run of form, we were impressed with Swindon when we played them up there earlier on in the season and we drew 1-1, and Jordan Seabright played well that day for us.
“We probably did not hit our full heights but we are in a good place at the moment.”
Maitland then added that the Terras are just taking it one game as it comes, before further explaining himself, acknowledging that it is a cliche.
Maitland added: “We have just got to take each game as it comes.
“I know it is the old cliche but it really is. I am no different to probably any of the supporters or any of the board members at the moment, you keep looking at the fixtures and thinking ‘could that happen, or could that happen’ but this league has proved all season that what you think is going to happen doesn’t.
“It is so tight top to bottom that you just cannot predict the results, it is just one game at a time, concentrating on that opposition, and preparing for it as best we can and seeing where it takes us but at the moment we are in a good, positive place.”
