WFCSA Newsletter April 2021

Terras Times The newsletter of Weymouth FC Supporters Association.

April 2021

2018/2019 Southern League Champions 2019/2020 National League South play off winners.

Football is at a crossroads this month with a European Super League and the greed behind it in everyone's cross hairs (since writing this the English clubs have already pulled out but the cat remains out of the bag).

Personally I don’t care what happens at that level of the sport. Since 1992 and the inception of the Premier League in England there has been a focus on commercial and business benefits for the clubs as opposed to emphasis on providing a service for their community and their fans.

I am not discounting the school of thought that says the clubs breaking away is a bit of karma for UEFA after years of supposed mis-management of the games upper echelons. I also understand that clubs at our level have responsibilities to sponsors and commercial partners as well as fans, but the deals are smaller and the stakes lower.

What is key is that non-league clubs are ready to warmly embrace any new disillusioned Premier League club fans who find their way down the pyramid to join us.

Even with no (or in time hopefully) limited fans allowed in stadia why not have a chat with your neighbour or friend who might be at the end of their tether with an Arsenal or Manchester United?

There are other ways you can join in and support a local non-league club until it's safe to go into grounds. Why not join the Wessex Fantasy Football or Claret & Blue lottery to feel a real part of something community based?

Tell them it will feel great! You have made a good start by joining WFCSA! In other news I am sure you will all join me in offering sympathies and condolences to the family and friends of Yeovil Town's Lee Collins. Rivalry is one thing, but this goes well beyond that. Our thoughts are with all at YTFC during this difficult time.

James

https://www.wfcsa.weymouthfootballclub.co.uk/

Terras Times The newsletter of Weymouth FC Supporters Association.

Chairman's Update Hello and welcome to this edition of the Terras Supporters Club monthly newsletter. I hope you are all well and have been enjoying the fine recent weather and our new found freedoms. There is a lot to get through this month so here we go!

The football club held its AGM recently, via zoom and it was well attended considering! By their very nature, AGM's are somewhat routine affairs and are over pretty quickly. One thing I would like to convey is both the sadness and disappointment felt by all WFC board members at the sudden resignation of Rob Bowman. I can only speak for myself in saying, having attended WFC board meetings on your behalf for almost 3 years, Rob has been a stalwart of the club and will be greatly missed. The evening before Rob resigned, he presented at a board meeting, a very comprehensive financial forecast for the 2021-2022 season, even to a layman like myself, it was clear a tremendous amount of effort and planning had gone into it's preparation. Only Rob can speak as to why he decided to leave when he did, but it has to be stressed as loudly as possible, it proved fruitless trying to persuade him to reconsider and his resignation was accepted with great reluctance. I wish to place on record, on behalf of all supporters of WFC, our thanks to Rob and all that he has done for us over the years of his association.

This seasons inductees into The Hall of Fame have been voted for and are as follows: Dudley Barry, Derek Courtney, Ashley Wells and Sammy McGowan. What a stellar list of names that is! Thank you to everyone who voted, we look forward very much to the time when we can once again stage social events and welcome you all to celebrate these inductees.

We will be organising End of Season awards to be presented to the players at our last home game of the season, so watch out for news on voting for that. Also, we plan to arrange for End of Season awards for the Weymouth FC Ladies team, more information to come on that as soon as we have it so keep an eye out across all the normal channels.

Finally, on the playing front, recent results have been disappointing, as we suffered three defeats in a row for the first time this year! This sequence culminated in a poor home performance against Aldershot, losing 3-0! Home defeats like this are never easy to take for sure but stand by for some context folks! The criticism following this loss was yet again quite vitriolic in nature. Yet, prior to that loss, we had put on a run of five home games without defeat, winning four and drawing one, garnering 13 points from a possible 15! This put us right towards the top of the home form table, a brilliant achievement which went largely unheralded, sadly! I agree wholeheartedly that our away form is not brilliant, with just two draws and one win away so far this year, but also for context, we have been in every single game and contested quite well against some real big hitters! We all knew this league was going to be crazy difficult to survive in, but rest assured, much hard work is ongoing behind the scenes to try and boost our chances for next season. For fresh air football fans, the future is looking much brighter than it was.

Until next time, continue to stay safe and look out for those around you who may need some help and support.

Pete Nash Chairman ‘The Terras Supporters Club’

https://www.wfcsa.weymouthfootballclub.co.uk/

Terras Times The newsletter of Weymouth FC Supporters Association.

Ladies Team - with Shakira Howard I am really excited to be back training and soon to be back playing matches again with the girls, we have our first game back on 11/04 which is a cup match against Holt. I definitely know this time around lockdown was not only hard for me but for the girls and management team too, especially because we were on such a high by winning our games and working well together as a team before Covid put a stop to the season but I am really grateful that the league has been able to carry on. During lockdown Natalie and Ryan came up with the idea of doing lap the map to raise money for a worthy charity ‘Women’s Refuge’ where we raised £1,205 for the charity. Lap the map consisted of cycling, running and walking around the UK coastline, this also helped us keep fit as well raising money for the charity.

Our manager Natalie, also set up a zoom call every Tuesday and Thursday for us online to do workout sessions together as a team. I definitely saw the benefit in the sessions and I think this has enabled us to come back to training fitter and stronger. We also had quiz nights on Sunday’s which were fun for all the team, it was nice to stay in contact with all the girls as I know we are a big part of one another’s lives, we are like family. I am sure that we will come back even stronger when we start back playing again, we are only playing our opponents once this time around due to the time scale we have and unfortunately one team has pulled out of the league so that only leaves us with a handful of games left. We have been back training for just over a week where we have had 5 training sessions back and with one of the sessions being held by Brian Stock and his management team, the session was brilliant. It really is wonderful that the men’s management and the men’s team are making an effort to minimise the gap between the ladies and men’s team, we are very lucky to have this because not many other teams would do that. Some of the Weymouth men even contributed to our lap the map fundraiser as well as sharing the links for us so we could gain more publicity and this could help us raise more money. The Men’s team and management are brilliant and very supportive of the ladies team.

Your Top 3 Terras Goals - seen in the flesh…

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to this piece. We are on to part 2 of the article so let’s get straight into it.

Bristol Exile give us his top 3 in reverse order, although the winner is a bit of a cop out!

3) The last goal against Cinderford in a 9-0 win in 1998. Yes Cinderford were down to 9 men but I have never seen anything like that second half before or since - the utter and complete dominance - we were passing it around seemingly endlessly in their penalty box as I watched behind the goal. Spellbinding.

2) Ben Smith at Tamworth - 2006 - first day back in the national league and we weren’t sure what to expect and we go 1-0 up in 10 seconds - “We are top of the league” we chanted!

1) For me it has to be a David Laws goal - which one - I couldn’t pick as they are all melded on my mind anyway but he was just so talismanic to the club at that time and to me as a man coming of age.

https://www.wfcsa.weymouthfootballclub.co.uk/

Terras Times The newsletter of Weymouth FC Supporters Association.

Your Top 3 Terras Goals PT2 Sydney Terra sent me a list of 11 which was then whittled down to 3 from his time in the Echo press box (Surely this is another 3 for a person who contributed to the first part of this feature? ED) 1.

2.

3.

Lee Phillips' away at Dagenham in the FA Trophy.

Andy Harris' at Forest. My apologies once again to the esteemed national press pack in attendance that day for my unprofessional but exuberant reaction.

All eight against Dorchester in the Boxing Day massacre.

Another person for whom keeping the list to 3 wasn’t possible!!!

TerraFirma from the clubs forum has made up for those who have submitted more than 3 by listing one goal, so good was it that it covered all three positions in his list!

Can't let this opportunity to go by without repeating a previous recollection - that of Steve Cribb's penalty way back in my dim and distant memory as a lad at the old Rec. Steve, a rugged, thick set, stocky Portlander, placed a wet heavy leather ball on the spot before literally blasting it about shoulder height straight at the keeper, who jumped up to take it double handed with his body fully behind the ball.

The net result, excuse the pun, was keeper, ball held firmly, rocketing into the back of the net.

Andy Purchase provided this list of stunners…

Possibly because it's so recent and fresh in my mind, but Yemi's opener v Farnborough in that final SLP match 27 April 2019 will go down as my favourite. Simply because I was so wracked with fear that we'd bottled our chance of winning the league (8 points clear with 4 matches left and Taunton 2-0 up at Basingstoke). The relief when that went on in front of 2,767 jubilant Terras and my view from the PA Box that day will live with me forever. I couldn't contain my joy and let rip with the goal announcement!! :) Others: Yes, John Dorrington's screamer v Peterborough - he'd just come on as a 19 year-old substitute. Harry Baker's winner at Salisbury in the pouring rain. Steve Tate's stoppage time winner in a rare victory over Havant & Waterlooville - his previous club in front of a fuming Billy Gilbert in Feb 2000 (Mark Robinson had equalised only a couple of minutes earlier). And of course, Andy Harris v Nottingham Forest.

The good news for this feature is that it rolls on to month 3. I would like to say a special thank you to all the people who have contributed and brought back so many great memories of goals and wonderful players.

Once this feature is over I have another corker in the pipeline which will hopefully prove as popular as this one.

There is still time to send in your list of goals to membership@wfcsa.co.uk so please do and all will be considered in an upcoming edition of Terras Times.

https://www.wfcsa.weymouthfootballclub.co.uk/

Terras Times The newsletter of Weymouth FC Supporters Association.

Membership update One new 5 year member in the past month but it’s a special welcome and nice to know we have support in Norway

“Velkommen til Weymouth supporterklubb og takk for støtten” Winners of this months draw were; John Hanger - Wyke Regis Derek Pride - Dorchester Annaliese Wykes – Bridport Congratulations to you all For this month I thought we’d take a look back at 1964-65 season when Terras won the Southern League, a number of familiar teams were competing.

https://www.wfcsa.weymouthfootballclub.co.uk/