Lifelong fans get on board with Terras
By Derek Bish

Tuesday 30th March 2010

TWO lifelong Weymouth fans have made the jump from the terraces to the boardroom as George Rolls began his plan to reunite the club and the local community.

The Terras’ chairman has pledged that the successful Company Volun-tary Arrangement (CVA) will mark the beginning of a new era at the Wessex Stadium and started in the right fashion, introducing Simon Etherington, of Delta Plumbing & Heating Supplies, and Mark Coleman, of Lomand Homes, as associate directors.

Etherington and Coleman have enjoyed being part of the Wessex Stadium faithful and will continue to do so, watching Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Thurrock from the same position they have always occupied.

“It was nice to see a good feeling on the terraces on Saturday and it feels like a new beginning for us,” said Etherington. “Now it’s time to put the feel-good factor back into Weymouth.

“The fans have suffered enough over the past few years. We’ve got to draw a line in the sand and move forward together, establish closer links with the community and get a few more people down here as well as a few more businesses behind the club.”

Coleman added: “We’re fans. We were born in Weymouth, we love Weymouth and we’re fans of Weymouth.

“We’ve been standing in the same place on the terraces for the last 25 years and used to watch us play down the Rec. We want this club to do well and survive. With the right people in charge it will do.”

Rolls has pledged to carry the Terras forward as a community club, forging better links with the town.

“Those ties have been severed in recent years as Weymouth FC’s debt spiralled out of control and the level of trust between club and community diminished.

However, the Cambridge-based chairman is looking forward and not back.

He said: “This is the start of a new beginning for us at Weymouth and as I’ve said all along we need to get the local community behind us and what finer start than getting two local businessmen who have well-established businesses in the town.

“They are well respected and well known throughout the community. The appointment of the two guys alongside myself shows that we are here to mean business and get the club back on the right footin.

“We’d like to see even more locals join the board and take us to that next level. When I say next level it is not about us getting promoted it’s about us financially being able to stand on our own two feet.”