Matt: We let Roy and the fans down (From Dorset Echo)

Matt: We let Roy and the fans down

8:55am Tuesday 24th November 2009

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Dorchester Town striker Matt Groves feels the team let down both Roy O’Brien and the travelling supporters during Saturday’s derby disaster at Weymouth.

The Magpies’ stalwart, who has played in his fair share of Ridgeway battles, ranked the defeat even lower than the 8-0 loss he suffered in a Dorchester team on Boxing Day 2003.

Manager O’Brien was sacked following the 3-0 defeat at the Wessex Stadium, and Groves believes they lost the FA Trophy tie because the Terras wanted it more.

The 29-year-old forward said: “It was always going to be hard for Roy with a new chairman coming in who didn’t appoint him and a couple of bad results meant the pressure was going to be on him.

“I’ve known Roy for over 10 years so it’s a hard one for me to comment on and disappointing on that note, but the performance was absolutely shocking.

“We now as a group of players have to buck our ideas up because if we don’t we’ll be out of a job as well.

“As a collective group of players we let him down quite badly.

“If they had beaten us and we had come back in having given 100 per cent you couldn’t have asked for anymore, but watching the game it’s quite obvious we didn’t. We let down all the fans on Saturday and that’s one of the best travelling supports we’ve had.

“I apologise because they came out in horrendous conditions and we let them all down.

“I think the thing that went wrong was that Weymouth wanted to beat us more than we wanted to beat them.

“They won every tackle and every header, and ran more than us.”

Groves, who bagged a hat-trick against Weymouth in 2004, told the Echo of his fear of potential embarrassment last week.

But after failing to avoid that shame, ranked the 3-0 reverse as the most disappointing derby day of his long Dorchester career.

“This is lower than when we lost 8-0 because when we lost that one Weymouth were an exceptional team and had exceptional players,” said Groves. “With all due respect to their current players they are not Lee Philpott or Steve Claridge.”

After the events of the weekend, which ended with Ashley Vickers being appointed as caretaker-boss, Groves has urged his team-mates to bounce back when they visit high-flying Woking on Saturday.

“I spoke to Ash on Sunday and we need to get into training,” said Groves. “He knows the way we want to play and he’ll drum that into everyone.

“We’ll go forward and hopefully be more successful. We need to go to Woking and get something there on Saturday.

“It’s not the easiest place to go and they won 6-0 at the weekend, so they will be high on confidence.

“But we’ve shown at Maidenhead and Havant that we are always likely to nick something.”

Meanwhile, chairman Shaun Hearn, who was set to meet with his fellow board members last night to discuss the vacant manager’s position, has insisted there are no enquiries being made in regards to O’Brien’s dismissal.

A club statement released to the Press on Sunday read: “Roy O’Brien has this morning been relieved of his duties as manager of Dorchester Town Football Club pending further enquires.”

However, Hearn said: “There are no enquiries going on. We thank Roy and wish him all the best.”

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