WEYMOUTH Under-23s’ boss Craig Adams believes the Terras’ 8-1 defeat by Wimborne Town can spark a steep improvement in his young players.

Weymouth chose to field a side comprised entirely of under-23 and under-18 players for the Dorset Senior Cup first-round tie on the New Cuthbury 3G pitch.

Terras’ manager Bobby Wilkinson did consider fielding Teddy Howe after his two-game ban, but the right-back instead trained on Monday night and did not travel to Wimborne.

Against a side currently top of their league in Step 4, Weymouth fell behind when ex-Terras’ forward Harry Baker scored in the sixth minute.

READ MORE: Wimborne Town 8-1 Weymouth - report

George Griffiths’ own goal levelled the scores but Cam Munn restored Wimborne’s lead immediately after kick-off.

Matty Burrows, sold by Weymouth this season, scored a third before Terras’ keeper Callum Smalley saved a Baker penalty on the cusp of half-time.

Jack Hoey, another former Terra, added a brace in the second half prior to Munn adding a deflected sixth.

Addwell Chipangura’s excellent double in injury-time, including a stunning swerving effort for 8-1, completed the scoring.

Despite the margin of defeat, Adams was in positive mood, telling Echosport: “It was brilliant for the players’ development, for them to come up against a first-team outfit, Wimborne top of their league, for our lads to look at what they’re up against and could come up against on a weekly basis.

“What they need to do now is reflect on their own performance, what you did and didn’t do, be your own biggest critic but then learn from it and put it into practice, because that’s the only way you improve.

“There’s no point rolling teams three, four, 5-0 every week. We have to be on the other side of that sometimes and then get up, dust ourselves down and learn from it.”

Adams did point towards two contentious decisions, claiming offside for Hoey’s first goal and onside when Frankie Monk was denied a goal for 2-2.

“Yeah, there was a couple,” Adams admitted. “Look, they’d have beaten us anyway. I take that on the chin, I tip my hat to them.

“But, yeah, that looked onside. Then, I would say in the second half I think it was their fourth goal, just after half-time, (Hoey) was on the goal line when the ball ricocheted off his own player to him.

“He’s took his chance and scored. The linesman couldn’t give me a straight answer, who was keeping who on, which usually means he got mixed up.

“He was having a conflab with the Wimborne bench a lot of the time and when I tried to talk to him he told me to shut up, so maybe he can learn from his night as well.”

And Adams also praised the support of Wilkinson at the cup tie.

“The gaffer’s been to five or six games now and two or three training sessions,” Adams explained.

“We’ve got two or three lads training regularly with the first team now and five or six lads out on loan between Step 4 and Step 6.

“We’ve manufactured between myself and the gaffer, the chance for players to go out so they’re closer to the first team.

“That’s what we’re trying to do, we’ll go about our work quietly. The gaffer’s very supportive and he’s good for the boys. He was in the changing room before the game.

“He doesn’t want to say anything a lot of the time, he just likes to see what the players are about, how they conduct themselves.

“He’s very professional and that, eventually, is where he sees himself, at a professional club.”

Weymouth host Worthing in the National League South on Saturday (3pm).