Gill: I won't walk away
By Derek Bish

Monday 15th February 2010

JERRY Gill will not give up on Weymouth’s fight to stave off relegation from Blue Square South, even though his side slumped back to the bottom of the table and eight points adrift of safety.

The Terras’ manager locked his charges in the dressing room for an hour after their 6-0 humbling at the hands of Basingstoke Town and vowed to put things right.

Gill and chairman George Rolls were barracked by supporters and one even threw his season ticket away in disgust while goalkeeper Tim Sandercombe, signed on Friday from Mansfield Town, had a debut to forget.

“It feels like a dream and I will probably hurt even more when I wake up tomorrow,” said Gill after the game. “I’m going to struggle to turn the phone on and struggle to read a paper.

“I got a lot off my chest in the dressing room but it hurts deeply.

“I’m not a quitter and never have been in football so if people think I’m going to walk out the door, no chance, I won’t do that, I’m here to do a job.

“Obviously the first game against Lewes was okay but I knew that things needed changing.

“But we’re running out of games – we’ve got 14 left, there’s points to play for and when the chips are down you have to get up in the trenches, have a go back and fight.

“That’s what I’ll be doing as a manager – I’ve never been a quitter, always a fighter, in my career and in my very short managerial career this is the first challenge from the big chief above and it’s up to me to take this on.”

The match got off to the worst possible start as Sandercombe completely missed his kick and allowed Stoke to open the scoring, but Gill has backed the young stopper to come good.

“Goalkeepers are a different breed,” said the Terras’ boss. “There is no-one behind him and if he makes a mistake more often than not it’s a goal.

“He’ll have ups and downs throughout his career like we all have but goalkeepers go through these spells and hopefully he’ll respond in the right way.”

Gill moved to sign Sandercombe after Ryan Harrison quit the club and Histon custodian Joe Welch cut short his loan, but missed out on other additions.

“It was a very tough Friday, I stayed down here after training on the Thursday and was on the phone all day,” he said. “I’ve been on the phone trying to get players in and three fell through that would have made us stronger.”

Meanwhile, heading the other way is former Swindon Town midfielder Chris Allen, who has not featured since Gill took the Wessex Stadium hot seat.

“We haven’t fallen out but his playing time has been limited here as everybody knows,” said Gill. “We’ve got to get people in who want to play for me and play for this club.