DORCHESTER Town manager Shaun Brooks will assess the fitness of defensive duo Mark Jermyn and Gary Bowles ahead of tomorrow’s home clash with Welling United (3pm).

Bowles has missed the Magpies’ last two fixtures, both of which ended in defeat, due to flu while Jermyn was carried off in the 2-1 FA Trophy exit at Uxbridge six days ago after taking a blow to his knee.

Brooks, who is already without four key players, said: “We sent Gary home from training earlier in the week because he still looked unwell so he’s doubtful.

“Wes Fogden is still out but we’ll have a look at Mark and see how his knee is.”

Dorchester, knocked out of both the FA Cup and the FA Trophy in the space of five days, now have their sights firmly set on rising from their lowly position of 18th in the Blue Square South table.

Brooks added: “The aim now is to get as high as we can in the league.

“The players we’ve got are good enough but we’ve got to put in some more performances and get the points. Talking about the players’ potential is one thing, we need to let the performances do the talking instead.

“The lads have always trained hard so there’s no issue there.

“After a good start to the season we hit a bit of a blip but we’ve been strong over the last two months, in which most of the performances have been okay, we just need to continue that.

“We’ve got one of the best defensive records in the bottom half of the table but one of the worst scoring records so we need to keep defending well, start creating more chances and score more goals.”

Despite recording two home victories in this season’s FA Cup, the Magpies are yet to win a league match at the Jewson Stadium this term.

Brooks said: “The club’s home form has been known about for years. We’ve got to make sure we get some results to turn it around.”

* A darts competition involving players, staff and supporters will take place after tomorrow’s game.

Contact the club on 262451 for more details.