Terras must regain pride
by Matt Pitman

Wednesday 29th December 2004

STEVE Johnson admits Weymouth's return clash with Dorchester Town on New Year's Day can't come soon enough.

The Terras boss watched on in horror as his side crashed to an embarrassing 4-1 Boxing Day defeat at the hands of their bitter rivals.

Johnson says he hopes that crushing blow has left his players anxious to restore some pride when the two teams meet again at the Wessex Stadium.

He said: "That defeat on Boxing Day, and particularly the manner of it, still really hurts.

"Like I said after the game, what you need in a local derby is a bit of passion and heart and we didn't have that.

"But the one good thing that you can take from it is at least we haven't got to wait another six or eight months for another go at them.

"It would have been the worst thing in the world if had we had to wait until next Boxing Day for the chance of revenge.

"At least with the way the fixtures have worked out, it is only the matterof a few days before we can hopefully restore some pride.

"If we had my way, we would have come off the pitch at 4.45pm on Boxing Day and been back out there the next day playing the return match.

"New Year's Day can't come soon enough because I want to put that embarrassment behind us.

"I just hope the players learn a big lesson from what happened on Boxing Day and come out on New Year's Day with a lot more fire in their bellies.

"These games mean so much to the fans and our big support deserve a lot more than they got at Dorchester.

"I said to the players at half-time at Dorchester that the vast majority of the crowd came to be entertained and they were not getting it.

"And by entertaining, I don't necessarily mean free-flowing passing football but sometimes what it takes is a crunching tackle or hard work.

"But it didn't happen and we need a 100 per cent better performance in the return game to put things right."

Meanwhile Johnson explained why he opted to change his formation to line up with three centre-halves at the Avenue Stadium.

"I changed things around a bit and in hind-sight that decision probably didn't pay off," he said.

"What Dorchester do against you may not be pretty on the eye at times but it is very effective and I wanted to try and counter that.

"They get the ball forward early to Groves and try and turn your defence.

"To counter that I wanted us to try and play the same system and put them on the back foot by getting it forward early to Lee Phillips and Kirk Jackson.

"That is fine when you've got the ball but unfortunately we failed to keep it long enough to I be effective and paid the price."

He added: "I've got a decision to make over whether we continue with that system on New Year's Day and that's something I'll be giving a lot of thought to in the next couple of days."