WEYMOUTH chairman George Rolls and the club’s board of directors have given Ian Hutchinson and his in-form troops their full backing by maintaining the playing budget for December.

With help from the Wessex Fantasy Football initiative, Hutchinson’s budget will remain just shy of £8,000, allowing him to retain all of his current players and also look to extend Matthew Wright’s loan stay into a third month.

Rolls is now hoping that gesture will be mirrored by a boost in home attendances, starting this afternoon when the Terras will host Banbury United looking to extend their unbeaten run in the Zamaretto Premier Division to five games.

He said: “Even though we haven’t managed to get the commercial activity in we were hoping for, the playing budget will not be cut at all, which means no players will be leaving.

“We believe in the manager and the players, and now we need our supporters to get right behind us, starting this afternoon.

“If the budget is to stay at the same level into the New Year then we desperately need people to come along to the games and support the team.”

With most local games falling to the weather this weekend, Hutchinson is hoping to see a bumper gate at the Bob Lucas Stadium this afternoon.

He added: “Our groundsman William Ronald is confident the game will go ahead and with most of the fixtures in the local leagues being postponed it will leave many teams at a loose end.

“I am sure the last thing they will want to do is be dragged around the shops by their partners, so hopefully they will come down and support us instead. It would be good to see them and it would certainly come in very handy at this moment in time.”

Going on to comment about the playing budget, Hutchinson added: “I would like to thank the board, along with the Weymouth Supporters’ Association, for their ongoing support.

“It also looks like, in principle, the deal for Matthew Wright has been done for an extra month. All we are waiting for now is the paperwork to be sorted but hopefully the powers that be will be able to do that.

“If it had not been for the Wessex Fantasy Football we would not have been able to keep Matt, so most of all, I would like to say a very special thank you to them.

“It is very important that we try to keep this squad of players together at the moment. We have a bond and a spirit and I desperately don’t want to lose that.”

* The Terras will travel to Hemel Hempstead for a rearranged league fixture on Tuesday, January 18. The match against the Tudors will kick off at 7.45pm