UPDATE: Magpies' assistant says Bromley defeat was 'defining' game (From Dorset Echo)

Magpies' assistant says Bromley defeat was 'defining' game

8:00pm Thursday 14th February 2013 in Sport By David Williams, Sports Reporter

STUART Heath reckons the Magpies’ drubbing at the hands of Bromley last month was a watershed moment in the club’s season.

The county town side chases a third win on the trot this Saturday when they play Basingstoke Town for the second time in less than two weeks (3pm).

And just before their trip to Hampshire, assistant-manager Heath has highlighted the 4-0 mauling by Bromley at the Avenue on January 8 as a major turning point in the Magpies’ approach to the rest of the Blue Square Bet South campaign.

“Things changed after the defeat to Bromley, on and off the pitch,” said Heath. “Games like that can really define you and they make everyone take a step back.

“You can either pull together and come through it the other side stronger as a group or you can go on a really bad run of results and go into freefall.

“Fortunately for us we recovered from that game and credit must go to the players for that.

“After that Bromley defeat we talked a lot about the mental approach to our game.

“There have been too many times, especially away from home, where we’ve conceded early and been on the back foot and with our attacking options it hasn’t been our forte to chase games.

“But if we start games well we have every chance of going on a good run and building on the last two wins.”

The midweek win at Bath City sent Dorchester into the top 10 in the league but Heath insists the first priority is safety before there can be any talk of the play-offs.

“It is still very tight and our main aim is to get as many points as we can until we are safe,” he added.

“For the time being we are looking upwards rather than below us but Saturday is another important game and we can’t afford to relax.”

Nathan Walker is set to miss out again as his cut eye heals, Ashley Nicholls and Mark Jermyn have a chance of coming back from injury and Nick Crittenden was being assessed in training tonight.

Magpies (from): Matthews, Bell, Martin, Pugh, Clough, Smeeton, Morgan, Gleeson, Watson, Moore, Malsom, Nicholls, Jermyn, Crittenden, Way, Brooks, Walker-Harris.