AFTER watching Mark Ford net a hat-trick in his first competitive start for the Terras, chairman Nigel Biddlecombe confirmed the young striker is officially a Weymouth asset.

Since making his debut on Valentine’s Day, as a second-half substitute in the 3-0 defeat to Chippenham, the 21-year-old has won the hearts of the Bob Lucas Stadium faithful with five goals in just 162 minutes of play.

And Biddlecombe is delighted to have the former Blandford United man tied down for the immediate future.

He told Echosport: “Mark Ford had an absolutely cracking game on Tuesday night.

“He showed his potential and I’m really pleased to say that we have him on a contract until the end of the season with an option for the following year.”

Meanwhile, the contract issues surrounding management duo Brendon King and Matt Groves have yet to be resolved.

The pair had agreed five-year deals with ex-chairman George Rolls shortly before Biddlecombe’s takeover of the club and further talks with the new owner have been put on the back-burner.

The latter added: “Brendon, Matt and myself are content they are concentrating on results on the field. They are quite happy with that.

“Their contracts will be discussed as soon as the time is right. They are not pushing and I’m not pushing.

“Weymouth FC has to be secure before we sit down with them and in all fairness to them, neither of them has been on my back about it.”

Biddlecombe also revealed that he has begun the process of clearing outstanding wages among the Terras’ playing staff.

He said: “There are still a few things outstanding but on Tuesday night I was able to pay some of the monies that are owed to the players.

“I wasn’t able to pay all of the monies but I have told the players that there will be more on Saturday. Hopefully they will be happy with that guarantee, in the knowledge that the arrears are coming back to them.

“We have a good team working around the club and it’s all coming together.

“We are not out of the woods yet but it’s coming.”

Tuesday’s 3-1 victory over rock-bottom Cirencester attracted a crowd of 451.

And although that number was 218 below Saturday’s attendance, Wey-mouth’s chairman was pleased with the turnout nonetheless.

He added: “A few months ago, after a performance like Saturday’s, we might have turned in a relatively small crowd at our next game but on Tuesday night we still had over 400 people.

“We have to be pleased with that as it was better than we envisaged after what happened on Saturday.

“We could’ve done with more but what we did get made sure we were able to cover everything we needed to.

“I can’t expect people to be as stupid as me and travel to games just because it’s Weymouth FC. We as a club have got to give them something to come for and although Tuesday night was not the best performance in the world we got three vital points.”