Written by Jack Webb
Today we sat down with one of our most senior players, who spoke to us about the importance of this club, alongside the support he received following last year’s illness…
I’m not a massive shouter, but if any of the players need advice I’m always happy to speak to them. Our dressing room has a mixture of younger and older players who all get on, so there’s a good team spirit.
The main thing for me is that I will always set an example on and off the pitch by working hard and giving 100 per cent.
In football you can’t be too high or too low.
Having a calm head is always a positive. Whether you’re flying high or staying a bit low the main thing is to stay level-headed, and that’s what we have to do now. If we carry on just focusing on our process, we’ll improve.
We wish we had more points, but that’s part of football. We’re kicking on now and hopefully we can start climbing up the league. We’ve had a few draws lately, in games we would have liked to have won, but that’s just part of football. Hopefully we can go into Saturday full of confidence.
We haven’t done as well on the pitch as we would have liked, but as long as we have Mark we’ll be alright. His biggest strength is focusing on the finer details, in terms of how he wants us to play. As players, maybe we’ve let him down in certain games, so now it’s up to us to prove how good we are. We win and lose together as a team.
I’ve known Mark for a long time.
We first met playing together for AFC Bournemouth, when we were both a bit younger!
We’ve got on well even back then, and I’ve always been impressed by his management. He helped me out at a time when I didn’t really have a club before my first spell here, and he helped me buy into a really good project he had started. That’s not changed even now; he still has good players and staff around him. I really enjoy playing under him; it’s my third spell under him now so he must be doing something right for me!
Weymouth means a lot to me.
There’s a good family feel around the place. No matter the result, fans are always polite and respectful. That doesn’t happen a lot in football. They’ve also given me and my family a lot of support, especially during the time I had cancer. Even when my playing career is over, I’ll always keep an eye on the club and come down as much as I can.
My illness brought mental challenges instead of physical.
At the time I felt fit and healthy; I had a lump and I didn’t realise it was causing issues. I even decided to play for the rest of the season after I got my diagnosis. Obviously it was a bit of a whirlwind at the time, but I had support from those around me, the club and my family. I have a close-knit family, which everyone says I’m lucky to have.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to play again after my operation, but once I felt fit and ready I began to build myself up. It was always going to take me a little while to get back to where I wanted to be, but even just returning to fitness feels great.
I have a lot to thank Weymouth for.
I couldn’t be more grateful for being allowed the opportunity to be able to come back. Football is a small world, and you can be forgotten about quickly, but everyone at the club kept in touch with me and asked how I was doing, and thankfully they trusted me to be able to get back onto the pitch. They even let me come down and help with the setup before I was able to play, which kept me busy.
I try to enjoy playing a bit more now.
As I said before, I wasn’t sure if I was going to play again. Football may be just a small part of life, but it’s something I love doing, and now that I’m at an age where I’m not too far off retirement I hope to carry on for as long as I can.
I’m not sure what I will do when I retire.
Even though I’ve helped out here a bit with coaching, it doesn’t jump out at me right now. But, you never know what will happen in the future. Hopefully I will get a few more years out of my legs first!
