MATT Groves thought the Terras were unfortunate not to claim at least a point at the Bob Lucas Stadium.

Weymouth were by far the better side in the opening half-hour but when Charles Mpi put Hemel Hempstead Town in front on 35 minutes, the hosts were unable to pull the deficit back.

Despite the defeat though, there were still a lot of positives the Terras could take from the encounter and Groves reckons they are not far away from being a top Southern Premier side.

He said: “I thought we were desperately unlucky. In the first half we played some of the best football we have produced all season. We created chances and were very unfortunate to go in at half-time 1-0 down.

“As we all know goals change games and it was a sloppy one to give away. It also allowed them to set up to play us on the break in the second half and in the end we couldn’t break them down.

“Fair play to them but on the balance of play I felt we definitely deserved something from it.”

Reflecting on the game’s only goal, Groves added: “We let them get in too easily. We allowed one of their lads to cut inside and although the initial shot took a deflection we should have done much better.

“If you want to win games you need to keep clean sheets and that is something we need to start doing more of.”

Groves also thought it was a game of fine margins. He said: “Hemel are second in the table but apart from the goal, they had one half-chance in the opening 45 minutes and it wasn’t until towards the end when we had to push on that they really started to cause us problems on the break.

“As for us, we created some great openings throughout but for some reason things just wouldn’t fall for us like Scott Walker’s header early in the second half, which came back off a post.

“It was disappointing in the end but for 70 minutes there were a lot of positives to take out of the performance and if we continue to play like that we will certainly win more games than we lose.”

The Terras, who now lie 14th, are next in action on Wednesday night when they travel to Frome Town (7.45pm).