Wimborne Town Reserves 3 Dorchester Town Reserves 2

THE textbook game of two halves saw Dave Kiteley’s men throw away a 2-0 lead and slip to a sixth defeat of the season at Wimborne Town.

The Magpies were in control of the game at the break after goals from Alex Godfrey and Jamie Symes, but they crumbled in the second half as the hosts fought back to win.

Wimborne’s triumph put them above Dorchester into seventh in the Wyvern Combination League Premier Division and left Kiteley asking questions of his defence.

“We seem to be making the same mistakes all the time,” he said. “Even when we had that tremendous 7-0 result against Gosport the defence seemed to switch off.

“The concentration levels don’t seem to be there and they are defending too high.

“We’ve lost a two-goal cushion on a couple of occasions now and we just need to be compact and patient.”

The Magpies started the brigh-ter and went ahead when God-frey slotted home from a cor- ner.

That advantage was doubled at the start of the second half when Symes struck a beauty of a free kick into the top corner and Dorchester appeared to be coasting to three points.

The hosts pulled one back on the counter attack and although there was a suspicion of offside about it Kiteley refused to make a fuss over it.

And instead of tightening up at the back the visitors left themselves open and as Kiteley told Echosport it was probably the first time this season that the team’s work rate hasn’t been up to scratch.

An equaliser followed but it could have been avoided with the Magpies given more than one chance to clear.

Kiteley was about to make a few changes when Wimborne broke away again and their centre forward, who had given the visitors’ defence a hard time of it all afternoon, bore down on goal.

However, it seemed he had been denied when 16-year-old Liam Shingler came in with a great saving tackle but sadly for him his intervention only served to deflect the ball past the helpless Alan Walker-Harris in goal.

“We need to be more professional,” added Kiteley. “I know where Phil Simkin is coming from when he says defenders switch off when the ball is in the other half.

“That is when you can be at your most vulnerable and you have to be focused and concentrating all the time.”

Magpies: Walker-Harris, Beals (Evans 80), Shingler, Diment (Shackleford 70), Butcher, Bell, Andrews, Symes, Tennant, Godfrey, Twyford (Taylor 70)