IT’S hard to view Weymouth’s start to the season as anything but a success, although with some potentially significant potholes along the road.

As it stands, Weymouth are still in the FA Trophy, a remarkable feat considering their third qualifying round replay 2-0 win over St Albans City, and are able to reclaim the top spot in the league via games in hand.

The Dorset Senior Cup could well arrive in their hands as well, being two matches away, but promotion is clearly their aim and it is so far so good.

Yes, there have been defeats, to Farnborough, Kings Langley and Gosport Borough, the latter ending their near-14 month unbeaten run at home in the league.

Yet these are yet to prove critical, although the challenge of Taunton Town is proving to be a very robust and impressive one from the Peacocks.

The remarkable thing about this is the absence of Josh McQuoid and Warren Bentley, arguably their marquee signings of the summer, feel like a footnote at this stage.

The Terras have adapted well to their absences and Brandon Goodship’s continued good form alongside the improvement of the likes of now departed keeper Jordan Seabright and Josh Wakefield have proved vital.

Signings wise, Sam Sherring has been an impressive loan so far, continuing the Terras’ successful borrowing from Bournemouth.

Jordan Ngalo has grown into being a brilliant option for Weymouth, and his equaliser against Dorchester in the Dorset Senior Cup was a real moment of magic from the young midfielder.

Lloyd Thomas stepped in for three big matches to deal another tick to the prior planning conducted by Mark Molesley’s management team in the Summer.

It has not all gone to plan: the injuries have been a blow, with Callum Buckley and Ashley Wells also having had to miss parts of the season so far and Jordan Rose’s one-month loan did not go entirely to plan.

Yet signings like Yemi Odubade and Rose show that the club can consistently pick out plugs to fill gaps when required.

It all feels like surprisingly in depth footnotes to a season that has, albeit cautiously, gone to plan so far.

Yes you can point to the nature of some defeats: the FA Cup loss to Banbury was a blow, losing a 3-1 half-time lead to fall 4-3 at Farnborough have made the journey frustrating at points.

Yet, pragmatically speaking, with the title challenge currently on course and real progression in two cups, would fans realistically have dreamed of more?

CONTACT ME:

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e: aidan.williams

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