WEYMOUTH will find out later this month whether their application to field a reserve side in the Dorset Premier League has been successful.
The Terras are keen to field a second-string next season to bridge the gap between their Under-18s side and the first team but despite having been accepted by the league’s committee they must now wait until June 24 when the member clubs will vote on their possible inclusion.
Weymouth Under-18s' boss Tim Davis said: “According to fixture secretary Pete Saxby, the league’s management committee have said yes but we are not there yet as we must now wait for the member clubs to vote.
“Touch wood we will be okay. The committee is looking for 20 clubs and as well as us they have also accepted Parley, who won the Dorset Senior League last season, and Sherborne Town Reserves.
“As long as everything goes ahead smoothly it will then be a question of recruiting players and getting enough in for the Under-18s as well.
“We will also need to appoint a reserve-team manager. There has been some interest already but until we know we have been accepted into the Dorset Premier we cannot really moved ahead with that at all.
“The problem is many of the teams have already began recruiting for next season, which means we could lose out on some of the better players, which is obviously not what we want.
“We want to build a competitive reserve side that can help develop players through to the first team and in-order to do that we will need to recruit the best youngsters and put them together with one or two older heads.”
The Terras held a trial game at Weymouth College at the weekend where most of last season’s Under-18s turned out alongside several trialists.
Davis added: “It was reasonably good. First-team boss Matty Hale has invited several of the players to pre-season training and there are some excellent prospects there.
“The majority of the Under-18s that made first-team appearances last season all took part and we are hoping to keep hold of the bulk of them.
“If we are accepted into the Dorset Premier then it will give the likes of Joe Prodomo, Jordan Vincent, Jamie Framp-ton, Ollie Tribe, Ben Reiffer and Ryan McKechnie good experience.
“Those types of players would handle that standard no problem in terms of talent but it would aid their development in the respect of dealing with the physical side of the game.
“They are all coming in for first-team training in pre-season so hopefully they will stay with us.”
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