Dorchester Town went down to their fifth consecutive defeat on Tuesday night in a demoralising 4-0 defeat to crisis club Hereford United.
If the task facing the Magpies before the game looked stiff, it looked even worse when Bilal Yafai gave United a 9th minute lead at Edgar Street.
Dorchester did seem to wake up a bit after that goal, and the rest of the half was fairly even, until right on the stroke of half time – Frenchman Serigne Diop doubled the Hereford lead, giving Dorchester a mountain to climb.
They had the perfect opportunity to get back into it ten minutes into the second half when they were awarded a penalty.
Dan Smith stepped up, and saw his effort saved by the Hereford keeper. And Dorchester’s misery was to be compounded as, within the blink of an eye – the Bulls broke up the other end and Diop was again on hand to make it 3-0, and kill off any lingering hopes of a comeback.
Hereford rubbed more salt into the wounds when Torquay United loanee Danny Sulivan made it 4-0 in added time, sealing Hereford’s biggest home win of the season in front of their lowest ever crowd for a home league game – just 239, as the vast majority of Hereford fans continue to boycott games in protest over the ownership of the club.
Another thoroughly miserable outing for the Magpies, and the heavy defeat means they drop into the relegation zone by virtue of goal difference.
Manager Graham Kemp was far from impressed, and has told his players many of them are now playing for their futures, and he is set to place a few on the transfer list. This however comes just days after he went on record saying that he believed his current side is good enough to finish in the top half of the table…
It’ll be interesting to see what effect those words have on the players on Saturday, when they welcome Cambridge City to the Avenue in the league.
Despite being one of the pre season favourites for promotion – City have made a poor start to the season, and currently sit 14th in the table with 24 points from their 19 games.
Will the players be up for the fight and ready to prove a point, or will they be content to simply roll over and feel sorry for themselves?
One way or another they have to start picking up some points sooner rather than later. There is a noticeable gap developing between the bottom 8 sides and the rest of the league, and with the bottom 4 going down, the Magpies need to find some form and fast. A second consecutive relegation would be disasterous for the club.
Cambridge City will go to the Avenue as favourites, but this is a very winnable game for Dorchester. If they’re up for the fight, they can do it.
Meanwhile Weymouth will be hoping their first team players are ready to go again after many of them had a week off.
A mix and match Terras side made up of a mix of reserve, under 18 and a couple of first team players went down to a disappointing 2-0 home defeat to Sholing in the Red Insure Cup on Tuesday night.
It may only be a minor competition, but the performance was a bit dissapointing, with some players showing as much interest as the crowd of 168 suggests the fans had.
In fairness, both the first team and reserve team have had very tough schedules of late with a lot of travelling and it may have finally caught up with a few of them. Weymouth always appeared to be a yard or so off the pace and never really got going.
A Jamie Beasley effort which was superbly tipped over the crossbar by the keeper was as good as it got for Weymouth, as goals from Oluwatobi Adekunie and Dan Mason were enough for the Boatmen to sail through to the third round.
It was a disappointment, but you wouldn’t imagine Weymouth will be losing too much sleep over it.
They’ll hope to get back to winning ways on Saturday when they welcome fellow southern premier league side Burnham to the Bob Lucas Stadium in the second qualifying round of the FA Trophy. This will be the first of two meetings in a week between the two, as the Terras make the return journey in the league next Saturday.
A pottential replay dosen’t bare thinking about. Two trips to Burnham in four days would just be wrong. A truly soul destroying place to watch football.
Hopefully the Terras do the business on Saturday. They will be expected to win, with Burnham sitting just above the relegation zone on goal difference.
Along the coast, Poole Town will try and play their Red Insure Cup tie at AFC Totton again this Tuesday after the game fell victim to the weather on Tuesday night.
The Dolphins will be hoping to play for the first time in a fortnight when they also face fellow southern league opposition in the FA Trophy, as they travel to 15th placed Biggleswade Town.
They’ll be hoping they’re not too rusty, as the last thing they’ll want will be a replay to try and fit in.
Also in the FA Trophy this weekend are Wimborne Town, who host Northwood. Northwood are from the equivelent level to Wimborne, and after they saw off Dorchester so comfortably in the last round, they’ll be hoping to go on a good run in this competiton and bring in some much needed money.
All the best to all four sides this weekend.
James Spring
