DORCHESTER Town will be hoping to give chairman Shaun Hearn the perfect birthday present today – beating fellow strugglers Lewes to virtually secure their Blue Square Bet South status.

The Magpies’ majority shareholder turns 43 tomorrow and three points at the Avenue Stadium (3pm) is no doubt top of his wish-list.

Should they provide the ideal gift, the county town outfit could find themselves 10 points clear of the drop-zone with four games remaining.

Assistant-manager Phil Simkin said: “Should we pick up three points, it will take the pressure off a little bit.

“And with it being the chairman’s birthday on Sunday there’s even more reason to get the win and make it a good day for him.”

Victory will also see the Magpies record their first double of the campaign, having enjoyed a 2-0 win at the Dripping Pan back in October, and break the 40-point barrier.

Simkin added: “It’s almost a similar situation to last season and if we pick up three points today that would give us 41 points.

"Forty is normally the benchmark as sides don’t normally go down with that amount, so we’re looking to get past that tomorrow.

“Lewes are scrapping for their lives and at this stage of the season you never quite know what will happen. But we have played consistently well recently, hopefully we will carry that on into today.

“They have had a vast turnover of players since we beat them away some time ago so we do not know a great deal about the lads they have brought in.

“But if we perform as well as we have done of late I’m sure we’ll be able to get the three points.

“We played really well at Woking on Tuesday night but got nothing out of the game, which was disappointing as we battered them almost for the entire second half. It was just the same old story in that we didn’t take our chances.”

Jamie Gleeson and player-boss Ashley Vickers remain the only absentees with both men still recovering from knee injuries.

Simkin said: “We’re almost at full strength and it’s a nice position to be in as it’s one we’ve not had very often this season.

“Jamie Frampton is back for the last month of the season and he will be in contention after doing extremely well at Wimborne.”

Magpies (from): Thomas, Coward, Critchell, Martin, Frampton, Smeeton, Walker, Bergqvist, Bowles, Jermyn, Coutts, Devlin, Crittenden, Symes, Taylor, Flood, Moss, Connolly.