THE chances of Dorchester Town retaining their Conference South status at the end of this season appear to be hanging by a thread following last night’s demoralising 3-0 defeat to Maidenhead United.

They are not mathematically down just yet, but their faint hopes of staying up took another hammer blow at the Avenue after last Saturday’s injury-time loss away to Basingstoke.

“We should have been in front in the first half, we should have scored,” said Dorchester boss Phil Simkin after the game. “That would have totally changed everything, as goals do, but we can’t score.

“It’s psychological. When you’ve been battered week in and week out, like we have, and you play well and watch someone miss an open goal, that is bad enough, but then you concede and you think you’re never going to get it back.

“As soon as we conceded a goal we had to throw people forward.”

The visitors took the lead from the spot 13 minutes into the second half and then went on to score two more goals in quick succession.

“We’ve been making individual mistakes since August 14 and we’re still making them, and that’s the reason we’re bottom of the league,” added Simkin.