Weymouth F.C.
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| Full name | Weymouth Football Club | ||
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| Nickname(s) | The Terras | ||
| Founded | 1890 | ||
| Ground | The Wessex Stadium | ||
| Capacity | 6,600 | ||
| Chairman | Martyn Harrison | ||
| Manager | Jason Tindall | ||
| League | Conference National | ||
| 2006–07 | Conference National, 11th | ||
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Weymouth F.C., also known as "The Terras", are a Dorset-based English football club based in the town of Weymouth, who play in the Conference National. The Terras spent many years in the top level of non-League football (initially the Southern League, then later in the Football Conference) before a period of decline. In recent years they were widely regarded as among the biggest underachievers in non-League football, but defied this reputation in the 2005-06 season by winning the Conference South championship.
Background
The team is currently managed by Jason Tindall, after Garry Hill left the club by mutual consent in January 2007, while the club is controlled by hotelier Martyn Harrison.
In the 2005-6 season, the club briefly reached national attention after holding former European Cup winners Nottingham Forest to a 1-1 draw in the FA Cup. Forest won the replay 2-0, in front of 6,600 fans at the Wessex Stadium and a live Sky TV audience.
The club averages attendances of just under 2,000 for league matches (based on 2006/7 season figures supplied by the club), amongst the highest gates in English non-League football.
The location of the club's Wessex Stadium on the south coast of England is such that they rarely have home matches frozen off even when other non-league grounds in south-east England are unplayable. The club has a great rivalry with its more famous neighbours Yeovil Town, although it has been many years since the two clubs last met competitively, with the sides moving in different directions.
History
Weymouth Football Club were founded in 1890 and played their first game on 24 September of that year. Nicknamed 'The Terras' almost immediately, due to their terracotta strip, the team won the Dorset Junior Cup for the first three seasons, becoming a senior club as the team rose in stature. Founder members of the Dorset League, Weymouth joined the Western League in 1907-1908. The club embraced full-time professionalism in 1923 after winning the Western League, joining the Southern League in the process. By 1928-9, with debts mounting, the club withdrew from the Southern League to become amateur once again.
The Second World War saw an end to football in Weymouth as the Recreation Ground was requisitioned for the War effort in 1939. The club reformed in 1947 on a semi-professional basis, and soon achieved promotion back into the Southern League. In successive seasons 1964-65 and 1965-66, The Terras were Southern League champions, and they share with Telford United and Yeovil the distinction of playing all twenty seasons in the Premier Division prior to the re-organization of the league structure at that time.
Weymouth have enjoyed considerable FA Cup success since first entering in 1893-1894. They first reached the national stages in 1905-1906 when they were thrashed 1-12 by Gainsborough Trinity In 1949 they lost 0-4 at Old Trafford to Manchester United in the Third Round proper, then in 1962 they reached the Fourth Round proper where they lost 0-2 at Deepdale to Preston North End. 2005 saw the team hold former European Champions Nottingham Forest to a 1-1 draw at the City Ground, before losing 2-0 in the replay. In the 2006-2007 FA Cup Weymouth held Bury to a 2-2 draw at home, in front of BBC cameras in what would be the first ever match to be broadcast live on free to air television at Weymouth.
Famous Weymouth players include: Graham Roberts and Peter Guthrie (both Tottenham), Andy Townsend (Southampton, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and Éire), Shaun Teale (Motherwell, Aston Villa), Tony Agana (Watford, Sheffield United) and Tom Jones (Aberdeen). Olympic gold medal-winning sprinter Darren Campbell was briefly a Weymouth player.
A move from the club's town centre ground to the new Wessex Stadium in 1987 brought initial success, but the club entered somewhat of a slump after relegation from the Conference, see-sawing between the Premier and Southern Divisions of the Southern League [1].
Journalist and author Ian Ridley took control of the club in 2003-2004 and his appointment of former Millwall, Leicester and Birmingham striker Steve Claridge as manager brought a new optimism. Within a season they had turned the club around from relegation fodder to just missing out on promotion to the Conference. Gates also increased from around 500 to 1200. The arrival on the board of Martyn Harrison and his decision to put the club in the hands of his company Hollybush Hotels as well as interference in playing matters prompted Ridley to leave in September 2004. Harrison sacked Claridge within a month.
Harrison was to appoint Steve Johnson - the brother of Gary Johnson - as manager in November 2004 prompting a huge-turnover in playing staff including the departure of star striker Lee Phillips on a free transfer to Exeter. When the team dropped down the league Johnson was sacked by Harrison in March 2005 with Garry Hill taking over. The club won automatic promotion to the Conference in May 2006 but at a heavy price with large loans from Harrison to meet soaring wage bills of around £20,000 a week and a full-time regime.
At the club's 2005 AGM, Harrison confirmed plans, pending local authority approval, to re-develop the Wessex Stadium, a scheme funded by selling the current ground to the Asda supermarket chain. This now looks very unlikely with local planners opposed to such a deal. Harrison is now looking at moving to another site and developing leisure facilities on the current land. Coincidentally, Asda's current base in Weymouth is on the site of the old Recreation Ground which Weymouth left to move to the Wessex Stadium in 1987, at a time when 32 years had gone by since a Football League club had built a new stadium.
In January 2007, Harrison announced that in order to guarantee the long-term financial future of the club, the entire first team had been transfer listed, and the management team of Hill and Kevin Hales had left the club by mutual consent. Days later, it was announced that Tindall had been appointed player-manager, with Roy O'Brien appointed player-coach, and the squad had been taken off the transfer list.
They finished 11th in the Conference National in 2006/7.
Managerial History
- Tommy Morris (1907-1914 and 1919-1922)
- Billy Walker (1923-1926)
- Billy Kingdon (1947-1948)
- Paddy Gallagher (July 1948-1950)
- Jack Taylor (June 1950-1952)
- Willie Fagan (July 1952-1955)
- Arthur Coles (1955-1961)
- Frank O'Farrell (June 1961-May 1965)
- Stan Charlton (July 1965-May 1972)
- Graham Williams (1972-1974)
- Dietmar Bruck (1974-Jan 1977)
- Graham Carr (1977-1978)
- Stuart Morgan (Nov 1978-Nov 1983)
- Brian Godfrey (1978-1987)
- Stuart Morgan (1987-Jan 1989)
- Gerry Gow (1989-April 1990)
- Paul Compton (1990-Dec 1990)
- Len Drake (1991-Oct 1992)
- Len Ashurst (Dec 1992-April 1993)
- Bill Coldwell (April 1993-Sept 1994)
- Trevor Senior (Jan 1995-April 1995)
- Graham Carr (May 1995-Sept 1995)
- Matt McGowan (Sept 1995-July 1997)
- Neil Webb (July 1997-Sept 1997)
- John Crabbe (Sept 1997-Dec 1997)
- Fred Davies (Dec 1997-Oct 1999)
- Andy Mason (Oct 1999-May 2002)
- Geoff Butler (May 2002-May 2003)
- Steve Claridge (June 2003-Oct 2004)
- Steve Johnson (Nov 2004-March 2005)
- Garry Hill (March 2005-January 2007)
- Jason Tindall (January 2007-present)
Honours
- Conference South: 1
- 2005-06 Champions
- Dr Marten's Premier Division
- 2003-04 Runners-Up
- Dr Marten's Southern Division: 1
- 1997-98
- Southern League: 2
- 1964-65, 1965-66
- Western League Division One: 3
- 1922-23, 1936-37, 1937-38
- Western League Division Two: 1
- 1933-34
- Dorset League Division One: 1
- 1921-22
- Dorset League: 2
- 1897-98, 1913-14
Squad
Club Officials
- Chairman: Martyn Harrison
- Chief Executive: Gary Calder
- President: Bob Lucas
- Directors:
- Nigel Beckett
- Faye Harrison
- Paul Thornton
- Ismet Emin
- Company Manager: Ken Wilde
- Company Secretary: Sarah Redford
- Fixtures Secretary: Pete Saxby
- Player/Manager: Jason Tindall
- Player/Coach: Roy O'Brien
- Club Doctor: Mr Gankande F.R.C.S
- Chartered Physiotherapist: Roger Hoare MCSP SRP
- Football in the Community Officer: Tim Davis
- Kit Manager: Chris O'Donovan
Players
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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External links
- Official Site
- Weymouth at the Football Club History Database