Premier go-ahead for Terras?
By Adam Summers
Tuesday 2nd June 2009
WEYMOUTH will find out later this month whether their application
to field a reserve side in the Dorset Premier League has been
successful.
The Terras are keen to field a second-string next season
to bridge the gap between their Under-18s side and the first
team but despite having been accepted by the league’s
committee they must now wait until June 24 when the member
clubs will vote on their possible inclusion.
Weymouth Under-18s' boss Tim Davis said: “According
to fixture secretary Pete Saxby, the league’s management
committee have said yes but we are not there yet as we must
now wait for the member clubs to vote.
“Touch wood we will be okay. The committee is looking
for 20 clubs and as well as us they have also accepted Parley,
who won the Dorset Senior League last season, and Sherborne
Town Reserves.
“As long as everything goes ahead smoothly it will then
be a question of recruiting players and getting enough in
for the Under-18s as well.
“We will also need to appoint a reserve-team manager.
There has been some interest already but until we know we
have been accepted into the Dorset Premier we cannot really
moved ahead with that at all.
“The problem is many of the teams have already began
recruiting for next season, which means we could lose out
on some of the better players, which is obviously not what
we want.
“We want to build a competitive reserve side that can
help develop players through to the first team and in-order
to do that we will need to recruit the best youngsters and
put them together with one or two older heads.”
The Terras held a trial game at Weymouth College at the weekend
where most of last season’s Under-18s turned out alongside
several trialists.
Davis added: “It was reasonably good. First-team boss
Matty Hale has invited several of the players to pre-season
training and there are some excellent prospects there.
“The majority of the Under-18s that made first-team
appearances last season all took part and we are hoping to
keep hold of the bulk of them.
“If we are accepted into the Dorset Premier then it
will give the likes of Joe Prodomo, Jordan Vincent, Jamie
Framp-ton, Ollie Tribe, Ben Reiffer and Ryan McKechnie good
experience.
“Those types of players would handle that standard no
problem in terms of talent but it would aid their development
in the respect of dealing with the physical side of the game.
“They are all coming in for first-team training in pre-season
so hopefully they will stay with us.”
