Ahead of tonight’s clash at home to Hampton & Richmond Borough, we spoke to the manager…
He touched on this frustrating period, Malachi Linton’s injury, and more.
Here’s what he had to say on the following subjects…
On the players’ reaction to Saturday’s loss:
We’re hurting. This is a difficult time, we feel we should have more points on the board, but there’s no hiding from it. We wanted to create more chances, and show a little more in possession, but when you go to top of the table, who haven’t lost at home for a year, you know it will be a difficult game.We defended so well, but we were cut loose once. That’s what’s so frustrating.
We’ve got to use this feeling as fuel for our fire. Only we can get ourselves out of this situation. We now have even more injuries to some key personnel, but that’s the nature of the game sometimes. It’s important to still find a way in tough moments.
On Malachi Linton’s injury:
Unfortunately it’s a hamstring injury, so it’s not ideal for us. He’s another top quality player that we’ll miss for a chunk of the season, so we’ll try and get him back as soon as we can, but we now have to find a way to win without him for the time being.
On “fine margins:”
It’s a game of very fine margins. Unfortunately, we’re on the not-so-good side of that at the moment. But, our aim is never to feel sorry for ourselves; it’s to be better. Yes, we’ve been unlucky in moments, but we can’t consider ourselves victims.
We are developing strength and resilience, but it’s no good just winning duels and having chances. We’ve got to out-perform teams in every possible way. I keep maintaining that we’re on the right path, but we still need to be doing more
On bringing in more players:
We know we’re low on players and we need a couple to come in and help us. We also know that we don’t want to rush and throw the wrong type of player into the group, but we are in a desperate situation and we’re looking for players to add to the squad.
We’re in a bit of a vicious cycle at the moment, the chairman and the board recognise that and have been supportive, and we’re trying to break that. But, unless a player can add a lot of quality to the group, we don’t want to do anything too permanent, as we hope that our star players will return to fitness in the next few weeks.
On players “putting their body on the line:”
Everybody has to do that. If you put on the Weymouth shirt and you’re not prepared to outrun and outbattle the opponent, then you’re wearing the wrong shirt. We’re in a situation that does involve bodies on the line and hearts on the sleeves, and we’ve got to run, work and fight ourselves out of the situation we’re in.
On how decision-making in games can be improved:
It comes from a whole range of things: experience, dealing well with pressure, and so on. It feels chaotic at the moment, so what we need are some clear, calm heads amongst the chaos. The most important thing is the mentality, to be able to perform in the circumstances we’re in.
On the frustrating cluster of games:
We’re in a vicious circle at probably the busiest time of the season. All the games squashed into one period has not helped us in terms of injuries. It’s not ideal, but we’ll make sure this situation is the making of us, not the breaking of us.
On quickly reacting tonight against Hampton & Richmond Borough:
As I keep saying, we’re not far away, and we just need to carry on fighting for that moment that will get us going again. There’s no better time than tonight to turn our fortunes around.
