THE Terras battened down the hatches on a blustery night at the Bob Lucas Stadium to end a run of four defeats from five in all competitions with a hard-fought draw against fellow strugglers Brackley Town.

Following two heavy Zamaretto Premier Division hammerings at the hands of Hednesford Town and Stourbridge, Weymouth desperately needed to stop the rot and thanks to a dogged defensive display they did exactly that.

However, with the third-bottom Saints sitting eight points above them with two games in hand, a point will probably be seen as a disappointing return in the grand scheme of things, especially as the basement boys failed to seriously test visiting keeper Stuart Dorrill throughout the 90 minutes.

The Terras went into the contest without star midfielder Rob Woll-easton, who missed out due to a swollen knee, causing Ian Hutchin-son to reshuffle his pack with evergreen utility player Mark Robinson making a shock return after over six years away.

The 34-year-old’s last appearance for the first team was on May 1, 2004 against Grantham Town.

Having seen his side concede 16 goals in their last two league games, Hutchinson clearly wanted to shore up his back four by changing both full-backs with Robinson replacing Matt Oldring on the right and Ollie Tribe being utilised at left-back, allowing Alex Halloran to push up to left midfield.

There were also a couple of new faces on the bench where Ben Reiffer and Ryan McKechnie joined Oldring and Sam Charles.

Meanwhile, Jamie Beasley missed out due to a seven-day ban he picked up while playing for Dorchester Borough in the Dorset League and there was no John Litherland, who is currently on holiday.

Just like the Terras, Brackley entered the game in desperate need of a change of fortunes in the league, having claimed just one point from their last four outings, so unsurprisingly the opening exchanges were edgy with very little cohesive football coming from either side. In fact the ball spent most of its time in the air in the first 10 minutes as both sides grappled for possession in a strong, swirling wind.

Eventually, it was the Terras that created the first opening on 14 minutes when Tribe cut in from the left and picked out Matteo King, who volleyed across the box for Matt Wright to turn the ball agonisingly wide on the stretch from 12 yards.

Brackley then threatened through Carl Palmer, whose shot was blocked by Robinson, before Alfie Taylor left Ben Gerring in his tracks on 25 minutes, only to be denied by a fine stop from Tom Manley.

The Weymouth stopper was then called into action again nine minutes later when he parried wide a wonderful strike on the turn from Jason Bradley.

Having survived those couple of scares, the Terras then provided some offence of their own with Gerring heading wide from a free-kick before some tremendous work close to the by-line by Warren Byerley led to a shot by Richard Groves, which went just past the near post.

The gritty nature of the contest continued after the break with Brackley breaking away on 49 minutes through Francis Green, who put Taylor away. He cut into the box, only to shoot hopelessly wide of the near post.

The Terras were now struggling to get out of their own half but stout defending in the tough conditions continued to keep Brackley at bay.

Josh Green sent a header from a corner straight at Manley on 75 minutes but apart from that the away side failed to turn their dominance into chances.

Weymouth also offered very little at the other end and on 86 minutes they suffered a blow when substitute Darren Collins pole-axed Gerring, who had to be stretchered off.

Oldring replaced the concussed defender in a switch that saw Robinson move to centre-back but it did not disrupt the home side’s solid rearguard, which eventually saw the game out to claim the club’s first clean sheet since the 1-0 victory over Cirencester Town on October 9.

Terras: Manley, Gerring (Oldring 90), Clarke, Tribe, Robinson, Magookin, Groves, King, Halloran, Wright (Charles 79), Byerley. Subs not used: Reiffer, McKechnie.

Brackley: Dorrill, Bignot, Clifton (Gould 52), Magunda, Willmott, J Green, Story, Palmer, Taylor, Bradley (Collins 84), F Green. Subs not used: Kemp, Ayris, Brady.