I’m carrying on
By Adam Summers

Wednesday 17th January 2007

WEYMOUTH chairman Martyn Harrison has made funds available to keep the club running until the end of the season.

This latest move to help secure the Dorset outfit's future has seen all the players taken off the transfer list and Jason Tindall and Roy O'Brien handed the positions of player-manager and player-coach.

Former chairman Ian Ridley was in talks with Harrison about a possible rescue package but the Terras' supremo reckons the club must start looking ahead.

He said: "The last few days has given us a bit of time to sit down and look at all the options available and we feel this is the best way forward. We have been working hard to pull the club around and we will continue to do that so hopefully we can get in local business people, the support­ers and a supporters' trust.

"We want to make everything as trans­parent as possible to get people to realise that what I have done is the absolute limit of what J can do, and get everybody involved that wants to be involved.

"I have met with the supporters' club chairman on a regular basis over the last couple of days and I have also had meet­ings with Dave Higson (main sponsor, Park Engineering) about setting up a committee to keep an eye on what we do here and to protect the club.

"Over these next four months we will sit down with all sorts of people to see what we can do. I want to listen to everybody and take notice of what everyone else has to say instead of just making my own mind up. We need to do that to get things sorted."

Of Ridley's offer, Harrison added: "That particular option is maybe not the best option because I think the club should go forward. He has been in, had a go and maybe we now need to look at it a different way.

"There certainly seems to be a lot of people in this town who can give us benefits and help towards the rebuilding of the club.

"There will be dissenters and I am sure there will be people who will say I have made a decision to take the ground away from the club, but everybody who is involved here knows that is not what is happening at all.

"I have been a mug to have done what I have done but I have done everything with the best interests of the club at heart, and if people say otherwise I can easily say and prove that is the case."

As well as Tindall and O'Brien being installed, physio Roger Hoare has also agreed to see out the rest of the season. It was announced last week that the medical man was ready to quit the club for pastures new.

Ex-caretaker manager Gary Borth­wick, who has been helping out at train­ing this week, will continue with the club on a voluntary basis.

Harrison added: "Jason is a very strong, level-headed guy. He knows football, he has football in his family background, and he has definitely got the ability. He also has the respect of the players, which is very important.

"Roy already coaches with the academy on a regular basis and he also has a lot of capabilities so hopefully these are two young men who can help take us forward.

"Roger Hoare has also agreed to stay with us until the end of the season which will make a big difference as well"

Tindall, 29, said: "It has been a strange old week or so and this has come totally out of the blue. But I've always been inter­ested in getting into management and now I'm really looking forward to the challenge ahead.

"We've had good news in the fact that the chairman has told all of the players he will honour their contracts, everyone is off the transfer list and there is a budget for me to bring new players in."

Several of the Terras' players have been negotiating moves elsewhere over the past couple of days and it is still unclear who will now remain.

Simoh Downer and Abdou El Kholti remain Weymouth players but could seal switches to Grays Athletic later today.

Harrison said: "It looks possible that we may have lost those two but Jason is now dealing with everything on that side so we are just waiting for confirmation on what has happened there.

"We will just have to wait and see what transpires but both Jason and Roy are confident that we will have a team of good ability to go up to Halifax with on Saturday and for the rest of the season."