DAVID Obaze expects to complete his move to Grays Athletic later this week but insists he has “loved” every minute of his time at Weymouth.

The towering centre-half will become the second Terra to make the switch to Grays after striker Jake Reid joined the Blue Square Premier strugglers at the end of last week.

Weymouth boss Ian Hutchinson stated in Saturday’s Echosport that should Obaze depart the Wessex Stadium the defender would be a “big loss”.

Obaze, who joined the Terras on non-contract terms in August, said: “It’s all happened so quickly and it looks like everything will be sorted by this week.

“I loved my time at Weymouth and things are looking brighter there at the moment. The club gave me an opportunity and I’m very thankful to everyone at Weymouth, including the fans who were brilliant.

“Hopefully they’ll be back in the Conference Premier soon.”

Obaze missed a handful of games earlier in the season due to difficulties travelling and admits it will be much easier to make the shorter journey to Grays’ New Recreation Ground.

The 20-year-old added: “I’ll be moving up a league now and Grays are much closer to home so it’ll be easier to get to games.”

Hutchinson, no doubt disappointed to lose a key component of his defensive unit, was left frustrated by the wintry weather at the weekend as his side’s home clash with Braintree Town had to be postponed with the Wessex Stadium pitch deemed unplayable following overnight frost.

The Terras’ chief said: “It was very cold Friday night but we thought it might have thawed enough come 3pm. However, Gary Calder and I were at the ground at around 10am and the pitch was bone hard.

“The referee was on his way so Paul Durkin was kind enough to come down and do the necessary checks, and he had no choice but to call it off.

“It’s frustrating as we could’ve done with a game and the chance to get points on the board, but safety is paramount.

“We had a good training session instead and it was good to keep the lads’ fitness levels up.”

Loan signing Scott Bennett is still waiting to make his Weymouth debut after Saturday’s postponement while another loanee Stephen Reed and striker Pierre Joseph-Dubois were denied the chance to mark their return to the club.

Hutchinson added: “Scott’s now missed two games through no fault of his own and he’s itching to get going for us. He looked good in training though and I’m sure he’ll fit in well.

“We’ll introduce Stephen and Pierre slowly as we won’t be making wholesale changes – we want to keep the nucleus of what we’ve got.”

The Terras are set to travel to Gillingham Town tomorrow night (7.45pm) for what will be the fourth attempt at staging the Dorset Senior Cup quarter-final tie.

Following that they do battle with fierce rivals Dorchester at the Jewson Stadium on Boxing Day.

Hutchinson said: “We beat them in last month’s FA Trophy game but that’s history now and we know we’ll be in for a tough game. Ashley Vickers will have them fired up and we’ve got to match that.”