MATT Groves has called on the Terras’ fans to help the club’s youngsters overcome their nerves at the Bob Lucas Stadium.

The player/assistant-manager rescued Weymouth a point with a late goal against Barwell on Saturday in what was another poor home showing by his side in front of a dwindling crowd of 421.

In fact a small section of supporters have already lost patience with Brendon King’s men and have begun calling for change in the dugout but Groves is adamant they are over reacting.

He told Echosport: “The players’ confidence at home is going to continue to suffer if we keep blowing it up even more.

“The more people get on their backs, the more likely it is they are going to go into their shells.

“Away from home we tend to relax more because teams play a lot higher up the pitch and that gives us more space to break on them whereas at home the opposition sit back and try and make life difficult, which is sometimes a lot harder to combat.

“A lot of it comes down to mental strength and I think the lads showed a bit of that on Saturday to come back from a goal down so late on.

“Of course we can play much better but people have to remember the average age of the side, discounting me, is only around 21-22 and it is not easy for them to perform every week, particularly with the weight of expectation on them.

“I am not making excuses but with the amount of changes that have occurred to the side since the start of the season things could be a lot worse.

“There is no doubt we could have picked up four or five more points but the fact we have just come through four games in 11 days unbeaten is certainly something to build on.

“Hopefully that can now breed confidence and convince the fans to continue to stick with us as their support is crucial, particularly with three more home games coming up over the next eight days.”

The Terras, who now sit 16th in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier, will host Sholing Sports in the Red Insure League Cup tomorrow night (7.45pm) before entertaining Hungerford Town in the second qualifying round of the FA Cup on Saturday, and Oxford City in the league on October 4.