DORCHESTER Town boss Steve Thompson has confirmed that young stars Ben Morris and Josh Williams have switched to Bridport under dual registration terms in order to gain more match minutes.

The duo were absent from the matchday squads in all three of Dorchester’s opening Evo-Stik Southern Premier South clashes to date, while fellow new signing Cameron Murray, pictured, has been a constant presence in the Magpies’ 16.

Bridport’s acceptance of Morris and Williams comes hours after Crit Clarke signed dual registration forms with Portland United, starting at left-back during a 1-0 win over AFC Portchester.

Commenting on all three players’ situations, Thompson insisted the driving factor is to build match fitness.

He said: “They have to play football matches. None of those three have started a football match.

“So Chris was able to play for Portland, and Ben and Josh were able to play for Bridport, so that gives them match fitness.

“The benefits for the young boys is that they do have to get that match experience. For Clarkey, who has had plenty of match experience, the benefit is match fitness.”

Reflecting on Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Salisbury, Thompson felt there were only a “couple” of positives to take from the contest.

He said: “There were a couple but none that were really worth mentioning.

“What we have is a young group of players and I think inconsistency could be something that is with us.

“It’s up to me to get that out of their system as much as possible.

“But it’s very difficult to do that with young players. You do tend to get more inconsistency in performance.

“You have to give the opponents some credit as well. Certainly on what we saw Tuesday (against Wimborne) and Saturday, they gave us a lot more problems.

“We weren’t able to break them down in the same way that we did against Wimborne.”

Thompson added that defensive errors were to blame, particularly for the latter two goals.

He said: “The second is a pure corner headed in, so that’s a marking problem. Everyone has a responsibility for a man and one of our players has not done his job there.

“The third goal is a bit of a mix-up between Callum (Rose) and Neil (Martin) at the back, so that was disappointing as well.”