DORCHESTER Town manager Steve Thompson felt his side’s 1-1 Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division draw with Dunstable Town at the Avenue Stadium was “awful” for spectators to watch.

Ashley Pope gave the Magpies a 33rd-minute lead before Charlie Black’s audacious lob handed the Blues a much-needed point as they continue to battle Gosport in the race for survival.

Speaking to Echosport following the encounter, Thompson believed the game “was never going to end” such was the fragmented nature of the clash.

He said: “I thought it was an awful game, very scrappy. The ref stopped it a lot throughout the game.

“It seemed like the game was never going to end. It was stop-start, stop-start. Obviously the pitch, although it’s a lot drier now, it just means that the bobbles are ankle height rather than shin height.

“You’ve still got to try and do better than that and at the end of the day I can have no complaints.

“Second half they had a few more chances than us, first half we were the better team so I think a draw is probably a fair result. We didn’t create much at all.”

Thompson was also left to rue the Magpies’ lack of tempo and quality during the encounter.

He said: “I told (the players) that the standard wasn’t really what we’re looking for. It’s very hard to

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get tempo. We tried to play with tempo and quality on a poor pitch.

“We had the tempo in the first half but we didn’t have either in the second half, either the tempo or the quality.

“We’re not pleased with the second half – we’re not over-pleased with the first half but felt we were the better team.

“It’s one of those games if you win them 1-0 you think that was ground out, but when you draw them 1-1 at home you’re very disappointed.”

Reflecting on Pope’s goal, his second in three games for the club since his work experience loan move from Bournemouth, Thompson was delighted with the teenager’s crisp strike on the half-volley.

“He took it well because it’s not easy to control a half-volley on the edge of the box, but he hit it well, cleanly. I think it took a slight deflection on the way in.

“It’s good for him, he’s got two goals in three games,” he said.

Since the turn of the year, Dorchester have drawn with both relegation candidates in Gosport and Dunstable, but Thompson remains unruffled due to his side sitting comfortably in 19th place.

He said: “It doesn’t worry me in the fact of our league position, but it’s disappointing that you can’t put the teams away down the bottom.

“We’re not exactly flying high so we have no divine right to think that we have an easy game, which the lads were told before the game and it turned out that way.

“Even the wins where we’ve won 6-0 and 4-0 against Farnborough and St Ives I think were 0-0 at half-time and 1-0.

“It could have gone a similar way if we produced a decent second-half performance, but we didn’t.”