DORCHESTER Town boss Steve Thompson was satisfied after the Magpies staged their first pre-season training session of the summer at Milborne St Andrew.

Thompson’s men, like many other clubs, began their preparations for the 2018/19 campaign with a mixture of ball work and fitness, with the Dorchester squad sustaining a good level of fitness during the off-season.

Speaking to Echosport, Thompson felt that the recent hot weather had affected some of the plans he had in place for the session, but was nevertheless pleased with the attitude of his squad.

He said: “The session went well and one slight problem we’ve got is that the weather is so dry the ground is rock hard.

“Most clubs, unless they’re professional, it’s difficult. A lot of clubs will find that – it makes life very difficult. We could do with some normal summer rain.

“It was more about what we could do.

“In an ideal world I would have liked to have done more but when you’re working with ground that’s hard it impacts on joints more. We did some ball work with fitness built into it.”

With the Magpies’ opening pre-season friendly scheduled for Saturday, July 14 away to Saltash United, Thompson has little over a week to fine tune his players for a match situation.

The Dorchester boss issued caution when discussing his training plans, believing a gentle approach to avoid injury as most important.

However, one player who may miss the start of the season is winger Aaron Rodriguez, who broke a foot during a five-a-side session.

He said: “We want them to work hard because we only have five sessions before the first pre-season friendly.

“We don’t want to go in too hard and pick up two or three injuries. It’s important not to put players out.

“Aaron has come back with a broken metatarsal, so that’s disappointing, but I was happy with the commitment (the players) put in.”

Dorchester, who have a busy first week of pre-season tussles, follow up their friendly with Saltash when visiting Portland United on Tuesday, July 17 before a fixture against a Plymouth Argyle XI doubles as the first to be held on the club’s new 3G pitch on Friday, July 20.