MIDFIELDER Matt Buse revealed Weymouth’s squad possesses the confidence to survive in the Vanarama National League South this season.

Weymouth have claimed six points in their past four games, inching closer to escaping the bottom four despite a placing of 23rd.

They remain two points off pulling themselves away from the clutches of the drop zone following the agonisingly late 2-1 defeat to Hemel Hempstead on Saturday.

Weymouth have been in a relegation position for more than 400 days across campaigns in the National League and the tier below.

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But Buse insists Weymouth’s players believe in the survival mission with 17 games remaining.

Asked if he felt Weymouth could avoid the drop, he told Echosport: “Of course we can, we feel we can and wouldn’t be playing if we didn’t.

“It’s been made very clear that if you’re not on the same page then there’s no point being here.

“Of course we’re confident with the group we’ve got here now.”

Buse, along with Nathan Carlyle, Tom Blair, Tom Bearwish, Brad Ash, Xander McBurnie and Ahkeem Rose, is among the small list of current players to have played at Weymouth last season.

On the differences between playing under previous boss David Oldfield and his successor Bobby Wilkinson, Buse said: “It’s just going in with an open mind.

“Every manager’s completely different and has a different ethos and way of playing.

“As a player you have to be adaptable because you’re never going to play for the same manager throughout your career.

“You’ve got to take to it, you buy into it, and go from there.”

Buse left Weymouth for a trial with Yeovil in the summer, later joining Gloucester before his Terras return.

Buse said: “It was a straightforward decision. I had Bobby on the phone straight away and I spoke to Jase (Matthews). We got it done pretty much straight away.”

Buse started against Hemel having mainly been restricted to substitute appearances since his comeback.

He said: “Like in any football team there’s competition, you don’t play at this level with 11 players.

“I feel like when I’ve played I’ve done well and it’s like anything, you try and stay in the team and play as well you can.

“I like to feel I’ve done all right. I haven’t played for a while but obviously disappointed we didn’t get the win.

“We’ve got to stay positive. We have been a bit up and down. If we were honest with ourselves we have been a bit inconsistent.

“For the first half on Tuesday (against Concord) we were brilliant and for the second half we weren’t.

“The end result’s the main thing, it doesn’t matter how well you play. If you don’t win it doesn’t matter.

“We’re playing well most of the time, it’s just spells that are killing us.”

Elaborating on the Hemel defeat, Buse told uptheterras.co.uk: “It is disappointing, we went in at 1-0 and to concede two late goals is never nice.

“We settled into the game and really grew into it. We got the goal and played well but it was cancelled out in the end.

“On Tuesday we felt we sat back whereas at half-time (at Hemel) we said the second goal would be massive but we didn’t get that.

“Then they got a goal and went and scored again. Our plan was to stay on the front foot.”

Assessing his own performances: “I’ve done OK, it was nice to be back in the team.

“When you don’t win it’s never nice.”

Weymouth host St Albans City on Saturday (3pm).