Tindall’s pride
By Matt McGheehan

Monday 29th January 2007

JASON Tindall was disappointed not to take all three points from his first home game as player-manager but was proud of his new look Terras.

The 29-year-old saw Stuart Beavon score on his home debut in the 1-1 draw with Northwich Victoria on Saturday, before the visitors equalised with nine minutes remaining.

Beavon replaced Chukki Eribenne who suffered a head injury early on and Ashley Vickers was sent off eight minutes from the end after a tackle with Jonny Allan saw the Northwich striker taken to hospital with a broken leg.

Richard Logan missed a penalty on the hour for the Terras and it looked as though it wasn’t going to be their day until Beavon got on the end of a flick on from Brian Dutton, who returned to the Wessex Stadium last week.

The striker got away from his marker and clipped the ball beyond the advancing Victoria goalkeeper.

Allan took advantage of a defensive lapse to equalise, but Tindall believes his side had done enough to win the game.

“I am disappointed because I felt we deserved more than a point,” he said. “We had enough chances and dominated long periods of the game – we had enough to win.

“I felt that on this performance, on chances, that we deserved to get the three points. But it is always good to get your first point on the board. It is one more than we had last week, so I suppose I have got to be a little bit pleased.”

Tindall praised the contribution of all his players for their performances in the first home game since the financial restructuring which saw the departure of six players, manager Garry Hill and his assistant Kevin Hales.

“They all conducted themselves very well and I couldn’t have asked for more from any of them.

“They were all fantastic and as long as we keep putting in all the good work through the week on the training field and playing like we did today, I can’t see us having many problems.”

Inconsistent referee Andrew Sainsbury made a number of decisions which baffled the Weymouth player-boss. In relation to the challenge on Eribenne which forced his early substitution, Tindall said: “It is beyond me what the thinking behind the referee was, not even to give a free-kick. I just found it incredible.”

The performance has given Tindall and the players belief for the remainder of the season.

“I still feel with what we have got left, with the players we have got here, we are still as good or better than most teams in this division,” he said.

The Terras are eighth in the Conference table and Tindall is optimistic.

“If the lads keep applying themselves the way they have done in training and the way they have done out there today then I can’t see why we can’t aim for the play-offs.

“It is not going to be easy with the amount of quality players we have lost but the players that are here are quality themselves – why not aim for the skies?”