MARK Molesley hailed Weymouth’s “strong underbelly” away from home as the Terras chalked up 10 league games unbeaten with an entertaining 1-1 draw at Billericay Town on Tuesday.
Both sides missed a succession of chances at New Lodge, the best coming for Billericay’s Jake Robinson who saw his first-half penalty kept out by a superb save from Calum Ward.
Abdulai Baggie then fired a blistering strike home to give Weymouth a 61st-minute lead before Robinson pounced 10 minutes later for a share of the points.
Weymouth have now drawn seven games on their travels in the Vanarama National League South – and Molesley felt it had been vital for the Terras to “dig in” upon their return to England’s sixth tier.
He told Echosport: “It’s a point on the road and 10 unbeaten in a new league – we’re keeping the momentum going.
“If we can just turn a few of these draws into wins, we’ll be sitting even more pretty. We’ve got to continue to improve and try and get better.
“That was key coming into this league – we needed to establish a strong underbelly and I think we’ve done that.
“The boys have shown that we’re not just a pretty football team, that we can dig in and mix it.
“I thought we were well-organised at times (on Tuesday) and we had to be because Billericay were asking a lot of questions of us and we stood up to them.”
The result means Weymouth have now been pegged back from winning positions on their travels by Slough, Tonbridge, Dulwich and Billericay.
Molesley is unfazed, adding: “I don’t think we’ve given up too many leads. We’ve caught teams up as well.
“At Eastbourne we were 1-0 down with 10 men and we came back – we’ve certainly shown we can come back.”
The match had been rearranged amid the backdrop of vandalism of the Blues’ surface, but Molesley hinted doubts remained about the state of the playing turf.
He said: “It was an exciting game with two teams trying to play good, attacking football on quite an energy-sapping pitch.
“The ground staff have done ever so well to try and rectify it, but certain areas were quite bobbly and heavy in the goalmouths and in and around the final third.
“It made fashioning opportunities quite difficult and it was slippery under foot but we’ve created some really clear cut chances.
“Having got into the lead, we’re disappointed to give it up. The boys have worked their socks off, shown great attitude and desire and we fully deserved a point.
“We’re a little disappointed it couldn’t be more but Billericay are a good team and had a right go. Hopefully it was an entertaining game. We look at the positives and we’ve come away with a point.”
Weymouth host Hastings United in the FA Trophy third qualifying round on Saturday (3pm).
