WEYMOUTH have decided against holding a friendly to mitigate the impact of a free weekend, boss Bobby Wilkinson has confirmed.

Due to the Terras’ exit in the Isuzu FA Trophy, a 4-2 loss at Worthing last month, Weymouth are having to sit out the weekend as the third round commences.

Other clubs at Vanarama National League South level have been knocked out, raising the possibility of a rearranged league game.

However, no solution has been found despite the Terras looking into the matter.

READ MORE: Worthing 1-3 Weymouth - match report

And Wilkinson has opted for training, rather than a friendly, to preserve squad fitness.

It means Weymouth must wait until Tuesday at Dulwich Hamlet (7.45pm) to attempt to continue a red-hot sequence of results that sees them top the form table.

Asked by Echosport if he’d considered arranging a friendly, Wilkinson said: “It’s a very good question.

“I think I would’ve but with the amount of injuries we’re picking up, like Nathan (Carlyle) who’s struggling with his hamstring, we’ve got to be careful we don’t pick up injuries in the back four.

“I know we’ve brought in Charlie (Rowan) to strengthen us but we’re still lacking defenders. If one or two of them get injured we’re proper up against it again.

“I couldn’t take that gamble so we’ll be training hard and working extremely hard ready for Tuesday.

“I would’ve if we had a big squad and everyone was available and fit.”

Explaining more about Weymouth’s activities this weekend, Wilkinson added: “We tried to bring a game in but we will be training on Saturday.

“There won’t be a weekend off for this football club. We’ll train early Saturday and then I’ll travel to watch Slough v Taunton because we’ve got Taunton twice over the Christmas period.

“Someone’s going to watch Dulwich for me. There’s hard work to happen this week, no-one’s going to be resting until April, until we’ve achieved what we want to achieve and stay in this league.

“It’s going to be difficult but we keep believing.”