DORCHESTER drew a blank in front of goal at the Avenue again last night as visitors Hitchin claimed the spoils with a battling 1-0 win in the county town.

Speaking after the game, Magpies’ assistant manager Nick Crittenden bemoaned the hosts’ lack of firepower – Bradley Tarbuck had just about their only real chance late in the second half.

“We didn’t keep a clean sheet but I think we defended well,” said Crittenden.

“We’re just not clicking in the final third and that’s something we need to address.

“We can’t carry on blaming the pitch and the conditions because other teams are coming here and beating us.

“I think we could have had a point but we didn’t create anything, and that’s our problem.

“We need to starting creating and playing exciting football, and we need to score goals.

“I think we had one shot near the end from Bradley Tarbuck which on another day might have gone in, but other than that I can’t remember us creating much at all.”

Crittenden, who came off the bench in the second period, went on to add: “We need our flair players to step up and start firing again.

“I believe we’ve got the players out there who can produce, but at the moment not many of them are.

“We just need to pick ourselves up, have a good training session on Thursday, and try and get a good atmosphere back.

“We can then go to Histon on Saturday and hopefully play like we know we can on a good pitch.”

Dorchester, also beaten 1-0 by Hungerford last weekend, are now down to 11th in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division after last night’s defeat.