Morning all. Welcome to this lovely little Friday edition of TerrasBlog. 

It didn't take long this season to get everyone at each others throats and the club message board which had been quiet has now erupted back into a frenzy of bile and disharmony. This time the trigger points seems to have been the issue of smoking in the Wessex stadium. 

It seems that despite everything that has gone on with the club and the proximity to the abyss that we got to earlier this year that we are still not going to approach securing the clubs long term future without much division. 

I haven't read the comment from the board member that started all of this, I am sure someone out there will be able to fill me in. Equally though I don't really care. I am thinking more about Matty Hale, Hutchie and the players and getting that first win. 

I have come to the conclusion that the off field issues at Weymouth FC will never go away so as a blogger I can only report them, offer my opinion, but back the board and lads where I see fit. 

Eagle eyed readers will have noted the date was wrong on the post yesterday! That's how eager I am to get to the start of the season!

And we are truly on BKO eve now. 

Reading the club message board I was entertained to read that only the team tracksuits and not their kit has turned up for the new season (hence why the press day and team photo has been delayed). I think that this show how much time, effort and commitment has gone into getting the club to the start of the season ! 

There has been so many things to sort out :0)

The good news is that with Lewes playing in red and black at home we might be able to turn out in last years yellow away kit, or the blue umbro one from the season before. 

There will of course be those out there saying this is evidence of how tinpot we have become... I would prefer to say it shows how close to the abyss the club was and how far we have come to even be taking to the field tomorrow. 

It's all about "Backing the Board, Backing the Lads". 

TerrasBlog has a history of making terrible predictions, but I am going to make some again... just so you can laugh at me!

• Terras will finish 9th in Blue Square South this season.
• Joe Arnold will be the top scorer.
• Kyle Critchell will score the winner against Oxford to set up an FA Cup first round proper tie with Southampton at St Marys.
• The away South Dorset Derby will be a thrilling 2-2 draw.
• We will win the home one 2-0.
• Despite thinking about going somewhere exotic, my stag do will be at a Terras match before a night in Rendevous.

I wonder how many of those will come good!

One final bit of news before we get started tomorrow is that Matt Hale has made some new appointments to his back room staff. 

This courtesy of the clubs official website.

New technical staff structure

As part of the rebuilding process at Weymouth FC, Matty Hale has made several new appointments to his back room staff to help support the Terras in their new season in Conference South. We can now reveal the following key positions:

As well as being supported by assistant manager Ian Hutchinson, Dave Kitely has been appointed reserve team manager and will be supported by Andy Mason as assistant.

Alan Bull has been appointed as goalkeeping coach and will work with all the senior goalkeepers and youth team goalkeeper at the club on a weekly basis and matchdays.

Damien Butt has been appointed to carry out match analysis on first team games.

Roger Hoare has been appointed as the clubs physio.

Pete Dennis has been appointed as kit man.

Tim Davis, the long serving Weymouth community and youth development officer will become Head of Football Development. His role will be to oversee the development programmes written by Matt Hale for all youth teams and oversee certain youth development schemes including a new strategy for an Under 17, Under 19 and Under 21 system next season.

Matty has also appointed a small group of scouts to cover London, Bristol and the South West who will remain unidentified.

This has all been put together as part of the strict budget restrictions that are in place at the club.

BKO eve is one of the greatest days in the footballing calendar. You are full of optimism and are always equal top of the league. New kits, new players (especially in our case) and new dreams.

Sadly BKO eve eve (which is today) is pretty boring. 

So I am going to link to a video mentioned in our comments section which gives a bit of a run down of who is who in the new look Weymouth squad. 

This is something I have been meaning to write for a while now.

I don't think the issues surrounding finance and local apathy have been exclusively caused by previous mismanagement of Weymouth Football Club. 

Whisper it quietly, but I finally think the football bubble has burst.  Not that the Sky Sports watching Premiership supporting armchair fan would notice. Yet...

Whilst the big four have been getting richer and the rest of the club have become more desperate to get to and stay in the league for the supposed wealth it brings them. Clubs in the lower league have not seen the "filter" effect of a distribution of the money in the game and have started to go under. 

But no-one at the top table seemed that bothered for ages. They were so big they could get the best European talent in, who cared about the little guy? survival of the fittest and all that. 

You could see the issues the Premiership was causing. You could walk around Weymouth (out of the tourist season before anyone points that out!!) and see Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal shirts. You would only see a Terras shirt on a match day. 

The top clubs didnt even care when they saw one of their own, Leeds United, more or less vanish off the face of the earth with debt and unsustainable players contracts. It wasn't seen as a warning. 

But there is a sea change coming. The big 4 have dominated so much that a lot of people are getting turned off the Premiership. Seeing it as a place for greedy young men (that means you Ashley Cole) to get more wealthy and behave badly. 

The tax regulations in the UK now mean that you need to be sickeningly rich like Man City to get the top European talent in now. When the big clubs academies can't provide who they need now, they might have to get back to looking down the leagues. They might not like what they find. 

So football is sick...with that in mind it is no surprise that small town clubs like the Terras struggle. 

You only need to look at what is going on down the A14 from here at Cambridge United to notice that the game is not being run properly but no-one seems to care at the FA unless you play in a high profile division. All the talk of Setanta's demise centred on what would happen to clubs in the Scottish Premier division and not the Conference clubs who also relied on that cash.

Bearing all this in mind it is great to see that two local companies have backed the Terras this week and we have new sponsorship deals in place for parts of the Wessex. 

Just the shirts to go now!

Sponsorship news

Weymouth Football Club are delighted to announce two new exciting and important sponsorship announcements made for the start of the coming season.

Firstly, we would like to welcome onboard Weyland Construction who have come in with a substantial sponsorship package. This package will include Weyland Construction redeveloping the Home & Away dug outs, the St Johns Ambulance Hut, and most importantly, working with supporters to redevelop the disabled area. They have also made a substantial financial contribution to the club for perimeter board advertising and sponsorship of the Reserve Team shirts.

On top of this, the club are delighted to announce a superb new sponsorship agreement with Weyline Taxis. This package includes Weyline Taxis sponsoring the Wessex Lounge. For the 2009/2010 season this will now be known as The Weyline Lounge. Weyline Taxis have also come forward to sponsor what was formerly The Compton Stand, which will obviously now become The Weyline Stand.

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to Weyland Construction and Weyline Taxis two local companies who have come forward to support the club this season. We are hopeful of announcing more exciting sponsorship agreements with local companies in the coming days.

 from theterras.co.uk

TerrasBlogCast32 is now available online. You can listen online or download to your mp3.

Enjoy!

Click here. 

Doesn't time fly eh? It seems only five minutes ago that we were eagerly awaiting the start of pre-season and now the Terras "BKO*" is less that a week away.

There has been plenty of comings and goings (including the first summer signing Dean Grubb leaving the club yesterday) and we have injury concerns over two key midfielders in Andy Harris and Hector MacKie. Despite all that though I remain positive over the direction the club and team will go in 2009/10.

As Director Paul Cocks told the official club website (and TerrasBlog in in his recent interview), times will remain hard and the club remains seriously short of cash. But the fact that we have a team to watch at all is a bloody miracle and so now is the time to be positive and get behind Weymouth FC. 

You never know, a couple of wins in the FA Cup and we could get that tie which will go a long way to helping eradicate the financial woes in one go... Why shouldn't it be us?

The one thing that is certain is the TerrasBlog campaign "Backing the Board, Backing the Lads" is taking off. More entries to the logo competition would be welcome (email me jimmythecuckoo@hotmail.com) as we look to help the clubs promotion in any way we can. 

On the playing side we have been applying our principle to pre-season (for those of you who can't remember have a scan through some earlier blogs). So the lack of wins isn't worrying. The other main factor to note is that we aren't the only club in this position in our division. 

Look at Lewes who we face next weekend in the "BKO". They have very similar issues to our own and it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that further clubs in Blue Square South will emerge as having financial problems. I don't wish it on them, I just believe that the playing field might be a bit more even than we feel at the moment. 

Podcast to come tomorrow!!!

*BKO- Big Kick Off (I am getting bored of typing it!)

Terras kick off their friendly Paulton Rovers tonght at 7.30pm and this will be their final test before "The big kick off" at Lewes next Saturday.

The closed season (or close season, still dont know which) has flown by and so much has happened to to the club. It will be nice to be able to blog about football and results and league tables. I am looking forward to the challenge ahead. 

I am sure a full preview of the season will be winging its way onto the website before long so I wont get bogged down with that today, rather focus on another new innovation coming to the site this season.

I got into writing about football about 15 years ago with a column in Yaxley FC's programme, I then had a season in the Terras edition. Memorable mainly for the picture of me wearing a hat made of Peruvian llama wool. It came from that shop in Brewers Quay. It wasn't trendy at the time but the kids seem to be wearing them nowadays. 

Anyhow the final part of the journey before TerrasBlog was a fanzine called "...a long time in football". It involved my best mate and I going round the non league stadia of the country meeting personalities and taking in matches. 

We went to Ossett Albion, the club whose Chairman was Gail from Coronation Street (seriously!). We went to Stevenage the day their ground was full of Torquay fans wanting them to win the Conference to keep the Gullls in League Two. But the personal highlight was being interview on Radio Rushden and Diamonds by the great Wally Valentine, an interview that over-ran (meaning Garry Birtles, European cup winner was left sat in the green room!) and was played out with "No Good (Start the Dance)" by Prodigy...

The adventures will be starting again at the FA Vase derby between Stansted Town and Royston this season... who knows where it will end. 

It isn't so long ago that we were playing Exeter City in Conference league fixtures. But a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since those days, and it has been in opposite directions.

City now ply their trade two divisions up from non-leagues top table in League One. We all know what has happened to the Terras!

Despite the 4-1 scoreline in favour of the Grecians, it has been widely reported that the young Terras line up played some attractive football. Which is nice to know.

The big kick off draws nearer now and I am sure Matt Hale's team line up for Lewes is beginning to form in his mind, subject to getting the contracts signed and sorted. 

Fingers crossed eh.

I am hopeful from what I hear that there might be some sponsorship news in the next few days. Times are of course hard so it will be interesting to see if the club can get something sorted and get the new kit before we get started.

Despite some encouraging performances the off field issues clearly remain and it is important that none of us take our eyes off the ball and think that the club is now in the clear. As Paul Cocks told the blog last week. Survival off the field would be an achievement this season, so it is important to keep realistic. 

Come on you Terras!

You know when you remember to do something when you should have already done it and then you try and remember again and then you forget?

That was yesterdays TerrasBlog.

By the time I worked out that I had not posted yesterday morning, it was last night and I was out cycling in the middle of nowhere. I did think about stopping and trying to update the blog from my mobile. But all you would have got would have been "gshfdhfghdhdhjopqw"... Predictive text and me does not mix. 

As you can gather from this update so far, there is not much going on this week. The main news is that after Ian Hutchinson (see here from YoungTerras)out of retirement to put in an appearance against Portland at the weekend, his boss and manager Matt Hale might have to do the same against League One side Exeter tonight. 

Mrs Slocombe our first choice left back has an injury which rules him out for a while, so say the Dorset Echo. 

They also 'reveal' the new Dorchester Town home and away kits which you can see here.... I actually like them... the kits! not the club. 

Back tomorrow... if my memory improves.

Woo hoo, it is Monday night podcast time with your old buddy TerrasBlogger.

Click here to download from 4shared or listen online using their handy player type thingy. 

Paul Cocks took the time and trouble to talk to TerrasBlog this week about how he came to be involved with the club again and his hope for the future of Weymouth FC.

You can read that interview in full here today. 

Whenever anyone is interviewed on TerrasBlog I always ask them if they read it and listen to the podcast...No one has said yes yet, please be the first!?

 

I read, but dont listen; this is not through lack of interest as I live sleep and breathe WFC, it is just faiure to get myself technologically organised - as anyone who knows me will understand!!

 

Having been at the helm of the club before it must have been a difficult decision to get involved again. What was the trigger, the moment that made you jump back in?

 

It was very difficult. I always said I would never do it again, it takes over your life and makes it virtually impossible to enjoy football. The trigger was that, being in touch with most of the relevant "players", I was aware that the club was within 24 hours of going in to administration; which, I firmly believed, would spell the end of the club. Everyone was watching and waiting, it was Shaun Hennessey who persuaded me that something had to be done.

 

 

As a board, if you could live last seasons run-in again, would you still appoint Bobby Gould?

 

For myself, yes. Sadly, Alan Lewer had given up the fight a few matches previously, as was obvious from his public comments. I honestly believe that with the rub of the green, Bobby could have kept us up. Unfortunately the real damage was done at home to Barrow and away, to Lewes, both matches which we should have won if the team had been properly prepared and motivated. Lewes in particular was embarrassing (no disrespect to them, a lovely club)

 

 

What makes you think the current board will be more successful than the previous ones who have failed to bring sustainability to the club?

 

for trouble there, I could write pages..........When I was chairman in the early 90's my mantra was that the club had to be self financing. Those who ran the club subsequently disagreed, effectively the club has been subsidised for the last 15 years. As has been seen at all levels of football, this always proves unsustainable sooner or later. If somebody as passionate and wealthy as Martyn Harrison cannot do it, no one can. We have simply made a commitment that we will live within our means. I will not be on a board that operates otherwise, and i think that applies to the rest of the board. What that means is that, if WFC is to progress, we have to rebuild the  income streams so dreadfully neglected over the last 2 years (despite the fact that we have lost our land for the moment). In practical terms the wage bill is now 65% down on this time last year. So, if the town wants good football, it needs to support its club, through the turnstile and in other ways.

 

 

What percentage of your day does Weymouth FC take up?

 

I first came on to the board, about 50 %. Now, much less, partly because some of the administrative issues have been sorted and partly because my business commitments have increased drastically (watch this space). Shaun Hennessey however is putting a huge amount of time into the club. Without him, we would not have made the progress we have.

 

 

When the club means so much to so many people, how do you feel about those who seem intent on destroying it? TerrasBlog is running its "backing the board, backing the lads campaign" to try and counter this negativity.

 

Wow, that is a tempting question. There is no doubt that our club has enemies; Ian Ridley is accused of paranoia when he says this, but it is true. There are disparate people and groups, all with their own motivations; Shaun and I were rightly criticised for trying to engage in public dialogue, on the forum and elsewhere. We have now accepted that the only way to deal with these people is to ignore them. The reasons for all this would take up a lot of space, and I am happy to talk to anyone about it, but I prefer to concentrate on the positives - namely the amazing work being done by Matty Hale in putting together a competitive tream on very limited resources, and the huge improvement in morale and spirit at the club over recent weeks. A word about Ian Ridley - always controversial, always abrasive, always fighting for  OUR club, and he does so much work that no one sees. He has our 100% loyalty, and if anyone can turn this club around, it is him. The "back the board" campaign is truly significant; our club has been split into factions for at least a decade, this is the first real sign of unity. It is a really important development.

 

 

What would be a successful season for Weymouth FC in 2009/10?

 

 In a word, survival. The financial threats are still huge. We have a clear strategy, but it could be derailed. it also depends on the town suporting us, through the gate and by advertising/sponsoring. I am not worried about the team -they will be mid table or above, of that I am sure. There is still a very real danger of administration if things do not work out, and conrary to popular belief, this could still see us thrown out of the conference.(there are other legal consequences I will not bore you with - I have been labelled the board's administration anorak) That topic is an absolute legal minefield. If we make it to the end of the season, I will think we have passed the crisis point. We may then be able to turn our attention to some other issues which bug me every waking hour.

 

 

Without getting us both sued (!!) give me a scale of 1-10 of the state the club was in when Ian, Dave and yourself walked back through the door earlier this year?

 

-27. The club was the most appalling shambles. I have been involved in many businesses in my life, and I have never seen anything like it.  Having been very close to the infighting for a couple of months, Shaun and I did not fully see it; Ian, who had been more detatched, said to me after a couple of days "this club is sick" and he was right. The saving grace was the off field staff - those still there and those now sadly made redundant - who had stuck with the club even though unpaid. Tim, Carol, Carol, Jackie and Jaz were heroic.

 

Thanks to Paul for his honest answers to my questions. This interview is exclusive to TerrasBlog so if you are a media outlet please contact me if you want to quote it anywhere. jimmythecuckoo@hotmail.com

 

Morning readers, its a quiet day on the Terras front today. Manager Matthew Hale has allowed some of his trialists to leave whilst bringing some more into the club.

There are so many names around the club at the moment that I can't imagine even Hale himself will know all of their names! The main thing is that Weymouth FC are being thorough in their search for the right players at the right price. 

Very wise I say.

During the podcast I promised a selection of good stuff coming your way and tomorrow sees the first TerrasBlog scoop with an interview with Paul Cocks. 

Paul as you will remember was a former Chairman of the club who had no intention of getting back into the running of the club. I was away that fateful February day when after the Stephen Beer affair he broke cover and helped take the club over. 

You can read about that, and his hopes for the future here tomorrow. 

In other news the rumours of a yellow away kit continue to circulate among the supporters (and no I didn't think to ask Paul about it during the interview!), but I might find out more from the next person who will be talking to me. 

Stand by for that too.

Here is the kit design in question. Not too bad is it?

See you tomorrow

With Terras losing 4-0 to Bristol City in a friendly last night it seems the appropriate time to back up this weeks podcast with the launch of our new campaign and competition.

Regular readers will know that in recent weeks we have been particularly vocal on the subject of getting behind the club in this important time. This has evolved from the off-field team of staff and directors to now the management and the squad. 

The creative side of my brain (very small!) came up with...

BACKING THE BOARD, BACKING THE LADS

...I hope you like it and I hope you will be positive enough to put aside any doubts you have about the club and follow this mantra. 

Every campaign needs a logo though, and after the creative efforts we have seen in previous competitions I want you to get your thinking caps on again to come up with the graphic that will define "BTB, BTL" (as I am calling it for short).

Entries to the usual email address jimmythecuckoo@hotmail.com , good luck to all. 

 

After mentioning the archive in the podcast last night I have had a request for links to the archive...

Here you go...

Original 2003 site. (Enjoy it before Yahoo shut us down)

The second site. (Not very visually exciting)

Members only. (When TerrasBlog went to Proboards and we had a sponsor!)

Bravejournal. (Where we took our sabbatical after the "Rumble at the Riviera")

Some golden moments when I read back through that lot I can tell you :0)

Evening all,

Welcome back to the new season of TerrasBlogCasts available via TerrasBlog, the clubs message board and now the Conf South website. 

Usual drill applies, click the link to get to 4shared who host the site. There you can download the mp3 or listen online... I-Tunes still waits in the wings (it's been a bloody soap opera I can tell you!!).
 

Click Here

The new TerrasBlog competition is launched within the programme. 

Email me your entries jimmythecuckoo@hotmail.com

Two days and two brilliant pieces of alliteration in the headlines for the blog.

Sadly for the Terras the test Tivvy provided (alright that is enough now!) was too strong with the home side running out 2-1 winners over Matt Hale's squad. 

A great result for us if you consider my bad pre-season = good regular season formula. 

The main news concerning the match was that for about the third game running Cameron Mawer was keen to play for the club before not turning out. It has been speculated on the club message board that Mawer had stopped retuning Hales calls and in fact turned out for Braintree on Saturday. 

Now that might be because he fancied a stamp on his passport by playing on Canvey Island, or it may just be further evidence that the game of football has finally gone mad. 

You can see that at the top level with players joining Manchester City.... but not for the money of course. 

Its like the old Mrs Merton question to Debbie McGee all those years ago "Why did you marry the millionaire Paul Daniels?".

Now I don't want to compare Cameron to Emmanuel Adebayor (who has spoken of his love for Manchester City before even training with the club), for example. But it shows how players don'y support the clubs they play for.

And with Mawer being one of the players who stuck with us during the unpaid period last term, maybe it was too much to expect for him to come back as if nothing had happened?

Bloody hell its cold up here in t'north this morning. Where is the lovely summer weather?

I was wrapped up like Scott of the Antartic for cycling this morning. It contrasts completely with the lovely sunshine of Spain I left behind last week... :0(

Anyhow I suppose the imminent onset of the football season is a sign that the good weather is drawing to a close and that we should batten down the hatches for a winter of Terras related 'fun'. 

Pre-season has been ok so far with one win and two draws (regular readers and watchers of the club will know that a good pre-season is always followed by a shocker in the real thing so 'ok' will do), but you get the impression there will be more of a serious feel to todays preceedings with Tiverton Town. 

They are a club we have had some cracking encounters with in the past, and (my memory isn't as good as Biddies so bear with me) I remember them knocking us out of the FA Cup in a decent game a good few years back. 

Hail Matthew, Matthew Hale has a couple of selection headaches in midfield with Andy Harris and former Potters Bar Town man Hector Mackie on the doubtful list. 

Trialists Jordan Rose and Aaron Blakemore will be looking to impress in the same way as Josh Llleweyn Bowen has in recent matches and make the cut.

I have heard various estimates that the Terras wage bill will be as low as the 15th in the division next season, which should mean a relegation battle. But I think in Hale and Ian Hutchinson we have a management duo capable of punching above our weight. It is certainly up to the rest of us to pull together and get behind the lads to help bridge the financial gap with fanatical support. 

As well as backing the board, TerrasBlog is 'backing the lads'. 

Gone are the overpaid underperforming chumps of the past (and not just the one at Bath City). We now have a young side with hunger and desire. They will make mistakes and will lose matches... But if they give 100% every match I will forgive them.

TerrasBlog - Backing the Board, Backing the Lads 

Weymouth drew 0-0 with local league side Poole Town last night, but far from being downhearted, Terras supremo Matthew Hale was impressed with some of the younger players trying out for the club.

Jordan Vincent, Ben Reiffer, Tom Richardson and Ollie Tribe all figured after the break and put in strong performances.

Andy Harris picked up a knock and is doubtful for hte weekends trip to Tiverton Town.

Apologies for the delay in getting yesterdays post on line. There were some techy issues at Ole Ole, but they are now all sorted.

Weymouth drew 2-2 with a Yeovil Town 11 (counted on their fingers no doubt) last night at the Wessex Stadium.

The home side flew into a 2-0 lead before being pegged back by their half-witted cousins from over the border. 

Still it is progress from last season when we managed to lose to them, I suppose. 

Just.

Dean Grubb and Kyle Critchell impressed (according to my spy at the match) and the latter remains in the driving seat for the Terras captaincy this season. I have always thought he would be the best man for the job and it seems that having read Matt Hales interview with the local rag this morning he clearly sees his leadership and organisational skills as key, along with the fact he is a local lad willing to run his balls off for the shirt. 

Having not been around for those halcyon days when we used to regularly beat the Glovers, I always await the FA Cup with great trepidation as Yeovil at home is the second match I want out of the hat. 

Peterborough away obviously being the first one. 

After the FA Trophy injustice at the turn of the millennium it is time for the green and white shite to have some pain... Let's hope it is this season. 

It has been great catching up with various Terras bits and pieces since I have been back off holiday. Thanks for the emails keeping me up to date and I was glad that those of you at the fans forum back at the start of the month reported that we had the kit exclusive right (it makes a chance I hear you scream!!)

And here is the new shirt for those of you who missed it on the blog last time and didn't attend the forum. 

We all know that the kit supplied by Prostar last season wasn't the best. But as one of the clubs creditors we have to stick with them and I am sure that the printing and quality will be better this campaign. 

Of course the major delay at the moment will be the absence of a sponsors logo, but I am hopeful the club can sort that out in the near future. 

I remember Cambridge started the season without a sponsor a few seasons ago and when they secured a deal they had the supporters shirt back off them to add the logo. I am sure we will be able to offer a similar service if that becomes reality. 

There is a lot of talk regarding the ex-Terras linked with a return to the club. I can reveal that an annonymous correspondent has confirmed straight faced that one of them will be a striker from the Martyn Harrison era. 

I have two names in mind, but I would be surprised if it was either of them! We should know soon enough and maybe there will be a new forward on display tonight in the match with Poole Town. 

We shall see...

more tomorrow. 

Welcome back to the post summer break TerrasBlog. Thanks for all of your support and for staying with us during 2008/09, it was pretty gory reading at the time, I look forward to enjoying what the coming season brings for us all in the Terras speaking world.

The last couple of weeks have seen the usual amount of in-fighting and squabbling in Weymouth FC world. The good news is that the football is starting again and we can hopefully forget about transfer of control over the message board and Trust board resignations to focus on what we should all be focusing on.

There is good news around the squad in the return of Cameron Mawer to the side tonight for visit of scumbags League One club Yeovil Town FC. I think we will smash them 144-0. I would love that. 

In fact my recent holiday was one of the first I have been on in years where I didn't bump into one of the cider drinking numpties in their fake Celtic tops. 

The Tour de France was an amazing experience and the image below shows that as well as promoting the name of my team (Fenland Clarion) I was sporting a Terras hat during the whole stage in Catalunya. 

 

One thing that did make the papers on the Spanish/French border was the departure of Eddie Mitchell from the post of Owner at near neighbours and Conference South rivals for this coming season, Dorchester Town. 

Mitchell could have been a figure of fun for TerrasBlog such as previous Magpies Chairmen have been to us. But with the vile death threats against him last season we made the decision that he was not fair game. 

So we aren't even going to make fun of that fact that he has given the club to two of his Sons, one of whom plays in midfield for the club. 

The rest of the season makes them fair game and it is interesting that the Dorset Evening Echo has quoted manager Roy O'Brien as saying he is in a 'difficult position' with regards to selection having his boss as part of his midfield armoury. 

This is going to be fun!!!! :0)

Manager Matt Hale has said that he is happy with the way his squad is coming together in time for what we will (in true cliche'd fashion) call the 'big kick off'. He hopes that he will have the bones of a a side together before this weekends friendly match.

Yeovil tonight and Poole tomorrow will give everyone who has been training with the squad with a run out and the news that every player who comes in will be signing both first and reserve team forms shows that there will be competition for places. 

We just need everyone off the field pulling in the same direction and life will be wonderful!

Podcasts to return

The popular TerrasBlog podcasts will be returning next week with a summer round up and season preview. 

For those of you who have yet to listen or who missed an edition last season, click here to get a link to the full back catalogue (including the guest appearance from an X-Factor winner).