MARK Ford is still going to have a major impact for the Terras this season according to Brendon King.

The young striker has fallen down the pecking order at the Bob Lucas Stadium following the arrivals of Ben Joyce and Dan Smith but he has certainly not been forgotten.

In fact, King believes Ford has the potential to play at a much higher level but must learn the tricks of the trade first before he can move forward.

The Weymouth boss told Echosport: “There is a lot more competition up front this season and Mark is handling it well.

“He knows the score and although he is obviously desperate to play as many games as he can, at this stage of his career stepping out and watching now and again is not necessarily a bad thing.

“We are playing a certain way at the moment and Ben and Dan’s know-how currently has them ahead of Mark but he is still going to have a major impact this season there is no doubt about that.

“It is important everyone remembers that he has only just made the step up from the Dorset Premier League and because of that he still has a lot to learn.

“Mark is a natural goalscorer and if he gets a chance in the right area he will put it away but he needs to develop other aspects of his game too.

“You only have to look at Ben and how he holds the ball up for his size and brings people into play to see where Mark needs to improve.

“Once he learns that side of things we really will have one hell of a player on our hands that could easily go on and play higher.”

King also believes Ford will become more prominent once his side completely gel following several changes in personnel throughout the summer.

He added: “Mark is a finisher but in order for him to do that we have to get the ball in the right areas first.

“Although we have been scoring goals, we haven’t been creating a lot of chances in games and that is something we need to improve.

“We need to start getting more quality balls in the box and in last Tuesday night’s FA Cup replay against Totton & Eling we managed to do that.

“We created 15 to 20 chances in that game but it was against inferior opposition and the challenge now is to try and do the same in league games too.”

Weymouth host second-placed Hemel Hempstead Town this afternoon (3pm) before travelling to Frome Town on Wednesday (7.45pm).