NIGEL Biddlecombe wants the Terras to show they care by avoiding the potential disaster of relegation.

Should Weymouth drop out of the Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division this season it would plunge the club to its lowest level since 1921 and put the interim board’s regeneration plans over the summer under huge threat – a prospect the club’s chairman refuses to even contemplate.

When asked what demotion would mean, Biddlecombe told Echosport: “I have not thought about that much because I don’t want to but there is no doubt it would be a disaster.

“Attendances would get worse and in turn that would have a major effect on the playing budget and the whole club from top to bottom.

“Being in a lower division would also make our plans to bring the community back in through link-ups with the ladies’ team and the local youth very difficult to sell, so it is vital that it doesn’t happen.”

Biddlecombe was left devastated on Monday after crowd trouble and an appalling performance against Frome Town wrecked his grand gesture of signing the club over to a community Trust.

Still smarting from that disappointment, he went on to add: “The players not only need to get the results to keep us up in the next three games but they also need to show they care for Weymouth FC.

“What I find so difficult to understand is that I would have expected the players to have taken to the changes at the club over the last few weeks a lot more positively.

“They have all been paid the money owed to them and I would expect them to put performances in on a consistent basis.

“Instead they put in a performance one week and then serve up a dog’s dinner for us the next.

“The way they went out and performed on Monday in front of 700 people on such a big day for the club was a massive disappointment and now they need to make amends.

“We have a good team and a talented group of players but they have got to start proving it on the park, not only to keep the club in this division but in terms of their own futures as well.

“Shortly, the management team and I will be sitting down with the players to talk contracts for next season and it is up to each of them to show just how much playing for this club means to them.”

Boss Brendon King has also come under fire in recent weeks but Biddlecombe insists he still has the backing of the board.

He said: “Not only do we continue to back Brendon but we back the players as well.

“Even if we wanted to make changes to the squad we can’t and we have no intention of changing the manager.

“His job is to get the players to perform for us and to cut out the mistakes.”

The Terras, who currently sit just three points above the drop, face a tricky run-in, starting with Saturday’s trip to play-off contenders Cambridge City. They are then set to host Hitchin Town before completing their season with another tough away game at fellow relegation candidates Redditch United.

* The Terras will host Kettering Town in a pre-season friendly on Tuesday, July 17 (7.30pm).