STEVE Claridge brings his Weymouth team to St George's Lane on Saturday in another testing match for City.

The Terras player-manager is currently finding his feet in management and has brought in some experience with the likes of Lee Philpott and Scott Partridge.

I don't know how Steve is adapting to life in management but from my own experience I would suggest it is not all plain sailing.

I was lucky enough to enjoy a successful playing career, winning a few trophies along the way, and probably felt I knew a fair bit about managing.

But making the step from playing to managing was a huge shock.

After three or four weeks I thought, 'I don't know a lot about this'.

It makes me laugh when I read about various management courses because nothing can prepare you for the reality.

The truth is you hit the ground running and learn on the job. Ultimately while planning and organisation have a part to play the secret to management is getting good players in that do the job for you.

The one thing you realise, is that no matter who you have around in terms of support staff, it counts for nothing when you've got beaten or are in the middle of a bad run.

Loneliest

The responsibility lies with the team manager and it can feel like the loneliest place in the world.

I don't know what the Highgate Reserves manager felt on Saturday but 21-0 takes some getting over.

We used to have those scorelines at school. I felt sorry for the opposition and for some our lads for that matter but their attitude and application was first class as it was against Bromsgrove on Monday night when they came from 3-1 down to win 5-4.

Three points from 15 does not make happy reading and we will have it all to do to improve that record against Weymouth.

There's little respite in the Dr Martens Premier Division and we are going to have to put the disappointment of consecutive defeats against Nuneaton behind us. In many ways the Terras match is similar to the Bath City game three weeks ago where the pressure was on us after three defeats.

The Bath game produced the right response from the players and we need more of the same at St George's Lane.

However, despite decent performances at Nuneaton the fact is we lost twice and it's important we turn those type of displays into victories.

There's a fair degree of confidence from the way we have been playing but that needs to be reflected in the result.

One cloud on the horizon is the number of injuries we've got.

At the start of the season we had real competition for places but we have lost that and that concerns me.

The absence of Kevin Halliday and Jon Holloway, who now falls into the bracket of longer term injury, allied to those five players that have already left the club, is a worry.

Ideally I would like to bring in a player or two to give us added options.

Jon's groin injury is a blow and it's a more serious reoccurrence of an injury he had in pre-season.

He had got over that, felt good and was playing well but the problem against Nuneaton was that he got pulled back quite severely and there was a sharp jerk on his groin.

Nearly two weeks on and there's little improvement. We're hoping that Carl Heeley will be fit to take his place against Weymouth and his presence will be vital.

JOHN BARTON was talking to reporter NAT SYLVESTER.