“WE owe them one” is the message from Weymouth defender Mark Cooper heading into the Ridgeway derby against Dorchester Town at the Bob Lucas Stadium on Saturday (3pm).

The Terras’ full-back got his first taste of the crunch showdown between the two clubs in his side’s 1-0 defeat to the Magpies at the Avenue back in August.

But Cooper predicts things will be much different this time round, and is looking forward to “putting it right” for the Terras in what will be his second bite of the cherry.

Reflecting on the reverse fixture, and Magpies’ chief Mark Jermyn’s winner on that day, Cooper told Echosport: “It was a typical derby and it had 0-0 written all over it.

“To be fair, looking back, it was a great strike. Nine times out of 10 he would probably put it out of the stadium.

“It was just one of those things, it was a bad day really.

“We brought a lot of fans and we let ourselves down and we know that, but we are good enough and it’s just a matter of putting it right and I’m sure we will.”

Cooper, who found the net in the 6-1 demolition of Slough Town the last time Weymouth played at home, added: “We didn’t perform and we weren’t at it, they (Dorchester) were and therefore we didn’t pick up the points.

“We owe them one because we were poor that day and we know we can do a lot better. We are looking forward to it. “We will try and do all of our talking on the pitch if that makes sense rather than hyping it up. It should be a good game.”

And while bringing the bragging rights back to Weymouth remains his immediate focus, Cooper insists the Weymouth squad are confident of making what they want to achieve this term a reality.

He added: “We have got our targets in the camp and I think we are on course for what we want to achieve.

“There is still a long way to go and there are a lot of points to play for, we will just see where we are come the end of the season.”