ONCE again Weymouth were forced to dig deep to overcome a supposed struggling side in the Vanarama National League South, this time Hungerford Town.
But a late Josh McQuoid strike made it 2-1 at the whistle and gave the fans plenty to celebrate given the news that boss Mark Molesley had extended his contract to lead the Terras until the end of the 2020-21 season.
The boss admitted his side were “lacklustre” throughout the opening period played out in difficult, windy conditions at the Bob Lucas Stadium whilst he acknowledged that the Crusaders were probably in a “false position” in the league.
“You have to fight and scrap for everything in this league – there is no easy game and that certainly proved the case,” he admitted.
“It was a tough game in tough conditions and the game never really flowed that much so we started to get a little frustrated at times. I think first half we were a little bit lacklustre to be fair but second half we got going a bit more and we didn’t concede many chances on our goal. So a better second half performance, but it was needed for us to get all three points,” he concluded.
On the 87th minute goal from the captain McQuoid, Molesley agreed that he used all his experience to score such an important goal and said: “I think it would have been a penalty as Calvin (Brooks) was bundled over, but Josh coolly dispatched it, right place right time. I’m delighted with the three hard-fought points – you’ve got to take everything you can in this league.”
Also, the manager was particularly impressed with the “resilience and character” his charges displayed in the second half as “people were really fighting for that badge on the shirt today.”
And despite Hungerford languishing second bottom of the table ahead of kick-off Molesley summed up the match when he said, “We are up against it every game and we’ve got to be at our very best. First half we were below par but I felt we created some good chances in the second half and we did enough to get over the line.”
Weymouth host Poole Town in the Dorset Senior Cup tomorrow (7.45pm).
