WELL and and truly HAMMERed - that was fate of the side put together by ex-Dorchester defender Neil Coates for his much-delayed testimonial match at the Avenue Stadium last night.

But for Coates, freed by the Magpies exactly a year ago after playing over 500 games, it was well worth the wait.

"It's been a great night and I am very happy with the way it went," he said. "I was very pleased that over a thousand came along to watch - but the money side of it wasn't important. I said all along that all I wanted was the chance to say thank you to the Dorchester supporters for eight brilliant years of my career and now I've done it."

Coates's side consisted of men he has played alongside at Dorchester and Yeovil - some, like Roy O'Brien, still performing at the top non-league level and others, like Phil Ferns and Ken Veysey, now all but retired from the game.

And it was very quickly obvious that they would be no match for a talented young West Ham side led by father figure Stuart Pearce.

Debut The vastly experienced former England international explained that he had asked to play because he would rather travel to Dorchester from his home near Salisbury to take part in a match than drive into East London for training.

"I made my debut for Wealdstone at Dorchester's old ground in 1979 and I remember we got beat 5-1," he recalled. "I spent five and a half seasons in the non-league and came here on a few occasions.

"I really enjoyed coming back again tonight and I hope the Dorchester supporters felt we gave them a good show."

Jermaine Defoe, who has spent the last five months terrorising Second Division defences with Bournemouth, soon lived up to his star billing.

Only Veysey's out-stretched foot stopped him scoring straight from the kick-off and then an exquisite piece of trickery saw him completely bamboozle Andy Harris and streak away to slot in the first goal after ten minutes.

West Ham's speed of thought and movement frequently threatened to embarrass the more senior members of Coates's side and Veysey came to their rescue on several occasions before they sneaked a cheeky leveller.

Matty Holmes's corner was flicked on by Thorpe and Harris shinned the ball in at close quarters.

Omar Riza - there's a name to remember - beat Veysey from long range for the first of his four goals after 28 minutes and six minutes later Defoe struck again, sending Riza away on the right before sprinting 40 yards into the goalmouth to head home his cross.

But inside a minute, O'Brien left Pearce on the seat of his pants and soared in a cross which Martin Shepherd thumped gleefully past Joe Sealey.

The Hammers stepped up another gear after the interval, scoring inside a minute of the restart when Riza finished off a move that must have seen them string a good 20 passes together. Adam Newton added a fifth almost immediately after a clever dummy fooled the entire Dorchester defence and Riza ran from near the halfway line to make it six.

Amoe Foweya turned in Leon Britten's right-wing cross for the seventh, Defoe got his hat-trick with a ferocious strike and Riza's last act was to neatly chip the ninth over substitute goalkeeper Andy Phillips who plays for Coates's Shaftesbury side.

"All credit to the lads who turned out for me at fairly short notice," said Coates. "A lot of them play at different levels now and some don't play at all - but they did me proud."

He was presented with a silver salver by Magpies fans after the game to mark his 500-plus appearances for the club.

And in a generous gesture, Coates presented £1,500 raised during his testimonial to the Children Living with Metabolic Disease charity which also received £280 collected from the crowd during the game.