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Weymouth F.C.

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Weymouth
File:Weymouth FC logo.png
Full nameWeymouth Football Club
Nickname(s)The Terras
Founded1890
GroundThe Wessex Stadium
Capacity6,600
ChairmanGeorge Rolls
ManagerIan Hutchinson
LeagueSouthern Premier Division
2009–10Conference South 22nd

Weymouth F.C., nicknamed "The Terras", are an English football club based in the town of Weymouth, who currently play in the Conference South. The Terras spent many years in the top level of non-League football (initially the Southern League, then later in the Football Conference). The club suffered severe financial difficulty during the 2008–09 season, and were relegated from the Conference National on 21 April 2009. The 2009–10 season has proved just as difficult for the club, with four different managers taking charge as well as 3 different Chairmen. The 2010–11 season will start with Ian Hutchinson back as Terras manager.

Club background

In the 2005–06 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 6,500 fans at the Wessex Stadium and a live Sky TV audience.

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-west England are unplayable, though their home fixture against York City was frozen/snowed off twice in the unusually cold weather of early 2009. 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 1907–08. The club embraced full-time professionalism in 1923 after winning the Western League, joining the Southern League in the process. By 1928–29, with debts mounting, the club withdrew from the Southern League to become amateur once again. They climbed back up the table and reached the Premier League and then folded for five years and reformed.

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-organisation of the league structure at that time.

Weymouth have enjoyed considerable FA Cup success since first entering in 1893–94. They first reached the national stages in 1905–06 when they were thrashed 12–1 by Gainsborough Trinity. In 1949 they lost 4–0 at Old Trafford to Manchester United in the Third Round, then in 1962 they reached the Fourth Round where they lost 2–0 at Deepdale to Preston North End. In 2005, the team held former European Champions Nottingham Forest to a 1–1 draw at the City Ground, before losing 2–0 in the replay. In the 2006–07 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.

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 2003–04 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 1,200. 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 2006–07. On 20 June 2007, Mel Bush, Tindall's father-in-law, was confirmed as the club's new owner, although Harrison had personally cleared all of the club's debts. Tindall was sacked in January 2008 after 12 months in charge, in light of a 2007–08 season record of only three wins, leaving the club in 19th, five points off of the relegation zone.[1] John Hollins was officially confirmed as the club's new manager a day later. He guided the club to an 18th place finish in the 2007–08 season.

In close season 2008 the club started a rebranding programme, with the club badge changing, and a club motto being introduced, "Forward Together". Then the announcement of local children's hospice Julia's House as the shirt sponsor for the year, following on from successful schemes such as Aston Villa and Barcelona with Acorns and Unicef respectively. The club also announced plans for a new stadium situated in the town which would not just be used for the club, but community purposes too.

On 21 October 2008, club owner Malcolm Curtis announced he was set to step down and look to sell the club. The following month Hollins was suspended and ultimately sacked for what the club described as an "unprofessional attitude" on his part, with assistant Alan Lewer stepping up to the manager's role.

At the start of 2009, it was announced that Weymouth were in financial difficulties. It is expected that Weymouth were £30,000,000 in debt and on 19 January 2009, Chief Executive Gary Calder announced that Malcolm Curtis had resigned as a Director and as Chairman of Weymouth Football Club Ltd.

On 21 February 2009, following irregularities with first-team medical insurance, Weymouth were forced to field their under-18 team against Rushden & Diamonds. The subsequent 9–0 scoreline is the heaviest league defeat in Weymouth's history.[2]

The ousted former chairman, Ian Ridley, made a surprise return to the chair on 18 March 2009 following discord between past and present members of the board which was fuelled by more than ten successive defeats in the league. This was followed days later by the sacking of Alan Lewer. He was replaced by Bobby Gould, the former manager of Wales.[3] Despite his experience, Gould was unable to turn the situation around and the club were relegated, having gained only a single point since the first team walk-out in February. They were overtaken on the final day of the season by Northwich Victoria, who had been over twenty points behind Weymouth before the walk-out.

On 20 May 2009 the club hired former Terras player, Matty Hale as their new manager. On 15 June, Andy Tillson left his post as assistant manager at the club after just 28 days to join Exeter City as assistant to Paul Tisdale. Then just 24 hours later on 16 June the club announced former Terras player, Ian Hutchinson as the new assistant to Hale. On 26 June Weymouth announced that they would be entering a reserve side in the Dorset Premier League for the 2009–10 season under the management team of Dave Kiteley and Andy Mason, and that the first team would enter the Dorset Senior Cup competition for the first time since the 2002–03 season.

Weymouth started their new season with a 1–1 draw at Lewes. But it was to be followed by a string of heavy defeats at home 5–0 and 6–2 against Eastleigh & Bishop's Stortford. It was not a great start but from then on a 1–1 draw at Maidenhead United was followed by their first win since 10 February 2009 with a 2–1 at home to Worcester City. It was, though, announced on Saturday 31 August that unless Weymouth could find £50,000 by Tuesday 8 September they would have to go into administration and possibly face extinction. On 1 September 2009 'The Terras Saviour 100' was launched in one last attempt to save the club from going to administration. And as the deadline neared, it was going well, so on deadline day the board decided to extended the deadline of getting 100 local businesses and this paid dividends, as on 11 September the club reached their target of 100 businesses needed to raise the 50,000 that would keep the club running.

On 10 October, after a 5–0 defeat against Maidenhead United and a string of bad results that left the club bottom of the Conference South manager Matty Hale handed in his resignation. A day later it was announced assistant manager Ian Hutchinson would take over on a caretaker basis. After a weekend of chaos at the club things got worse on the Monday as it was announced The Chairman and chief executive, Ian Ridley & Dave Higson would be leaving the club because of ill health & work commitments.

On 26 October, after the 2–0 home defeat to Bath City, Paul Cocks current director at the club had announced this.

"Weymouth Football Club regrets to announce that Notice of Intention to Appoint Administrators was filed at The Courts of Justice, London earlier today. The Board is now working with the proposed firm of Administrators and the Terras Supporters Trust to try to find a way to enable the Football Club to remain in existence. The Club is now losing money on a week-to-week basis and without financial support from outside the Club it is unlikely the Administrators will be prepared to enable the Club to continue to trade in order to avoid increasing losses to creditors. Anyone interested in assisting the Club or acquiring the Club out of administration is encouraged to make contact with the agents acting: Benedict Mackenzie 62 Wilson Street London EC2A 2BU without delay. Every day is critical."

In November 2009, former Cambridge United chairman, George Rolls made a successful bid for the club and became the new owner. Part of this deal saw manager, Ian Hutchinson stay on until the end of the season. But after Hutchinson claimed just eight points from a possible 30, Rolls decided to sack Hutchinson and his assistant Andy Mason on 17 January 2010 after the 4–1 home defeat to Chelmsford City.

On 27 January 2010, Jerry Gill was named as the new manager, signing a contract until April 2011. In March 2010 chairman George Rolls applied Weymouth Football Club for a CVA (Company Voluntary Agreement) because of the 822,000 debt at the club. On 11 March, Jerry Gill resigned as manager after just 44 days in the job.

In March 2010, Weymouth chairman George Rolls announced that if their proposed Company Voluntary Arrangement is not accepted then the club could go into liquidation. The CVA was accepted on March 26, saving the club from extinction. However, a 0-0 draw against Thurrock the following day effectively confirmed that Weymouth would be relegated for the second year in succession, as it left them needing to win every remaining game, with a goal difference that was vastly worse than any of their relegation rivals. Relegation was mathematically confirmed on 5 April after a 2-1 home defeat by relegation rivals Weston-super-Mare.

On 14 April 2010 it was announced that Terras fans favourite Ian Hutchinson will return as manager with assistant Andy Mason joining him on a two year contracts, as of the start of the 2010/2011 season.

Current Squad

Club officials

  • President: Bob Lucas
  • Chairman: George Rolls
  • Vice Chairman: Pranas Preidzius
  • Club Secretary: Gary Calder
  • Associate Directors: Mark Coleman, Simon Etherington, Will Ronald
  • Manager: Ian Hutchinson
  • Assistant Manager: Andy Mason

Managers

Honours

References

  1. ^ "Weymouth dismiss manager Tindall". BBC Sport. January 28, 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
  2. ^ "Weymouth 0–9 Rushden & D". BBC Sport. February 20, 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
  3. ^ Report in Dorset Echo by Ky Capel, 19 March 2009. http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk

Template:Conference South

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