Kiteley's warning for Terras' reserves
By Derek Bish

Tuesday 16th March 2010

DAVE Kiteley has warned his Weymouth players not to think a return to reserve-team action will be a walk in the park when they host Westland Sports tonight (7.45pm).

Ollie Tribe, John Lamb, Ben Reiffer, Ryan McKechnie, Shane Evans and Jordan Vincent all experienced Blue Square South football against Welling United on Saturday, while Michael Neish and Stephen Walker were unused substitutes.

However, they will return to the more modest surroundings of the Dorset Premier League when Westland Sports visit the Wessex Stadium to test the Terras’ young heroes.

“They deserve the support of the local people behind them after Saturday to keep pushing them on,” said Weymouth Reserves’ boss Kiteley. “The reserves and the under-18s are an integral part of the club at the moment and it has been proved with the situation the club are in at the moment.

“It was a great decision to reform the reserves at the start of the season and it has proved its worth, as have the under-18s.

“Relegation is a foregone conclusion for the first team so I think personally the reserves can become even more important for the simple reason that if they go down one or two leagues, the gap between the firsts and the reserves will be smaller.

“When you are dealing with players at that level of football you can create more competition for places.

“I think it is imperative there is a reserve side because you can build two decent squads of players to rotate between them.

“That gives the reserves an extra incentive and should also be a massive lift to the young local players.”

Kiteley was in the dugout for Saturday’s Blue Square South match between the Terras and Welling United and was impressed with all the youngsters on show, particularly Jamie Frampton and Tribe.

“Ollie proved on Saturday he can be a good right-back. He was comfortable there, his positioning was good and his strength was good.

“He and Jamie Frampton were absolutely outstanding.”

Frampton has become a regular part of the first-team squad this campaign so will not be stepping back down to the reserves tonight, but Tribe and seven others will.

Kiteley said: “I hope they don’t think after their efforts on Saturday that tonight will be a walkover because Westland are a good footballing side and will be up for it playing under lights at the Wessex Stadium.”

Chris Philbrick, a 19-year-old defender, has signed for the Terras to help add extra bodies for a difficult run in, a string of games that Kiteley admits will be hard on those involved.

“It’s going to be a strain on resources, no doubt about it, and it’s also going to be a strain on the under-18s as well because they have a lot of fixtures left,” said Kiteley. “We have to take it step by step.

“In the last few games there have been at least three of the under-18s starting and three on the bench.

“They have had a little bit of experience and there will be one or two others stepping up before the season is out.”

Terras (from): Neish, Lamb, Rosario, Walker, Poole, Mitchell, Cole, Morley, Brock, Sibley, Reiffer, McKechnie, Min-Kim, Evans, Head, Vincent, Richardson, Tribe, Philbrick.