Jake McCarthy has described Weymouth’s late winner over Dorking Wanderers in the National League South Playoff Semi-Final as the best feeling ever.
McCarthy assisted Yemi Odubade’s 95th-minute winner which secured a 3-2 victory for the Terras at the Bob Lucas Stadium last Saturday.
The Terras, who had been leading 2-0 at half-time before the Wanderers levelled the game, now face Dartford in the National League South Promotion Final at the Bob Lucas Stadium on Saturday (1 pm kick-off).
Speaking to BBC Solent after the game, McCarthy said, “The thing is with this team, the amount of times, especially here that we’ve gone right to the wire and got a late winner, it’s the best feeling ever, so roll on Saturday.
“The character of this side is one of the main reasons why were are where we are today and why we’re in the final. Mind-set is a thing we work on a lot, before the game we’ve got a thing which we call our ‘game-face’ and we’ve got to try and get into that zone.
“Even if things are going good, or bad like it was at 2-2 even if we only have about 5 minutes left, we’ll just keep fighting until the end and we just know that’ll we’ll always get one more chance, luckily we managed to take it right at the end.”
All four AFC Bournemouth loanees (Ward, Camp, Anthony, Hobson) started against Dorking Wanderers, as well as McCarthy, Harfield, McQuoid, and Wakefield from Weymouth’s starting eleven all having played their formative years with the Cherries.
McCarthy says the Bournemouth influence has had a positive impact on the squad. “I think the way we try and play, playing out from the back is very similar to Bournemouth,” continued McCarthy. “They’ve obviously had great success with it and so have we.
“Stereotypically in Non-League people just think it’s a kick it and flick it on sort of game, but we’re changing it up a bit. Dorking are a great footballing side as well, when we played them at their place in the season they were probably the best side we faced footballing wise.
“The philosophy has rubbed off, having all the Bournemouth loanees has helped and having myself and a couple of the others who have been at Bournemouth it’s such an easy philosophy to come into because it’s very similar to Bournemouth.”
Despite Havant & Waterlooville finishing higher in the table and being made strong favourites, it was Dartford who came through the other playoff semi-final; although the Weymouth midfielder said he was not surprised to see them progress to the final.
“Beforehand I predicted that Dartford would win at Havant and I predicted that we would win as well to a couple of my friends,” added McCarthy. “I just thought that having the final here could be the best scenario and felt like it’s our time, we’ve worked so hard the last three years.
“The first year we got to the playoff semi-final and fell short, the second year promoted, and now we’re going for that back-to-back promotion.
“We’ve got everything in the changing room and we fully believe that we’re going to go on and do it. To give those fans what they deserve and when they can come back into the stadium we’re hoping it’s in the National League next year.”
In partnership with BT Sport and Sportradar, each of the ten season-defining games will be shown exclusively live on the service, which includes HD coverage and commentary.
VNL Play-Off Passes come in four individual and multi-match packages.
To access every match live and on-demand, the recommended Play-Off Pass is priced at £14.99.
Single-game passes are available from £5.99, while access to both Promotion Finals costs £9.99.
Follow the link below to purchase a pass for this game.
https://events.sportradar.com/en-int/page/vanarama-national-league-play-offs
