WEYMOUTH manager David Oldfield again berated his side’s defending from set-pieces as Wealdstone beat the Terras 3-2 in the Vanarama National League.

Brad Ash put Weymouth 1-0 up on the stroke of half-time but two goals in three minutes from Rhys Browne and Jack Cook left the visitors with major work to do.

And Browne was poised to take advantage of a missed header from Tyler Cordner to make it 3-1 with 15 minutes to play.

Weymouth did pull one back through Josh McQuoid to set up a hugely tense finale in which Aaron Drewe and Tom Bearwish both went close on multiple occasions.

Weymouth were unable to force a leveller and remain nine points away from safety with 11 games to go.

READ MORE: Wealdstone 3-2 Weymouth - match report

But Oldfield was again left to rue his side’s defending, highlighting the same issue the Terras have succumbed to against Halifax and Altrincham.

He told Echosport: “It’s a very difficult result – again.

“I felt we did better in many aspects of the game, certainly from our previous match. We were significantly better in many things we did.

“But if we can’t defend the set-plays well enough, and we failed to do so, we get what we deserve.

“It’s a real shame for the players because they worked very hard and were positive and willing.

“To be undone by set-plays is difficult. We’ve worked on it in training and it’s a crucial part of the game.

“Every team will work on it. We need to do more, keep practising and need to deliver our attacks restarts better and defend the restarts in our box better.

“But there are many positives from the game.”

Weymouth were much the better side in the first half, but Oldfield refused to draw attention away from the Terras’ shortcomings.

“It’s not great to speak about the first half in independence to the second,” he insisted.

“We finished the game strongly as well and had some opportunities that I think we probably should’ve done better with.

“There was overall lots of positives to grab on to. Some players played that hadn’t played a lot of football.

“The boys worked hard as a collective group and showed some reaction and resilience from last week.

“We need to make sure we don’t undo the good work with sloppy goals again.”

Weymouth have now lost or drawn from winning positions four times in Oldfield’s 12 games in charge, slow starts to the second half a worrying hallmark.

“It’s something we need to do better on,” Oldfield said.

“I’d suggest there are many aspects, many factors to it. We need to put our fingers on the relevant pieces and do better.

“It’s another restart of the game and something we were conscious of, we work on and talk about.”

Asked if he had been tempted to protect the lead at the start of the second half, Oldfield said: “We tried to protect the draw in the first half and the goal in the second as well.

“But we need to make sure we defend those set-plays better. It’s not a case of shutting up shop.

“We need to do those restarts better and make teams really work to score goals.”

Weymouth now have a bye weekend before travelling to Woking on Tuesday, March 22 (7.45pm).