WEYMOUTH manager Bobby Wilkinson has revealed two-goal striker Brad Ash was deliberately rested against Farnborough with victory at Concord in mind.

Weymouth lost 3-1 at Boro last Tuesday, with speculation top-scorer Ash had been dropped after missing two penalties in recent weeks.

However, the forward returned to the starting line-up against Concord and repaid Wilkinson with a brace, taking his tally to 16 goals for the season, as the Terras won 5-0.

Commenting on Ash’s performance, Wilkinson explained the circumstances around his recall.

He told Echosport: “What a lot of people don’t know is that Brad wasn’t dropped.

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“I left Brad out because I was thinking of (Concord).

“Farnborough aren’t in our (mini) league, so we made one or two changes because we wanted to be ready.

“Brad, if he had scored the penalty last Saturday, wouldn’t have played on Tuesday because it was back-to-back games.

“We wanted to freshen things up. At the time, it looked like it didn’t work but (at Concord) it did.

“He was fresh, hungry to prove a few people wrong and I thought he was unbelievable.

“But, it’s consistency now. Next week, let’s make sure we go again and he puts in the same performance.

“His overall play, forget about the goals, his touch and moment was unbelievable.”

Weymouth next host second-placed Dartford on Saturday (3pm), beginning a pivotal sequence of eight games in 22 days.