NOT even the return of captain Mark Jermyn could help end Dorchester Town’s winless run at Basingstoke on Saturday, with a stoppage time defeat leaving the Magpies lamenting their ill fortune yet again.

Now four points adrift at the bottom of Skrill South, tomorrow night’s home clash with Maidenhead United, who won at the weekend, takes on even greater significance in the quest for survival.

Unfortunately for Dorchester, while their skipper recovered from injury to play at Basingstoke, he is set to miss the next two fixtures through suspension.

In boss Phil Simkin’s eyes, his side should be going into the match tomorrow on the back of a positive result at the Camrose Stadium.

“A point was the very least we deserved,” he said. “We equalised with a great strike from Charlie Losasso and at one stage it looked as though we were going to win it.

“We chased a second goal because three points are important for us in our position, but we came away with nothing.

“They got the winner in the last few minutes and both their goals were down to individual mistakes, which were very disappointing.”

While Jermyn returned to the fold, Jamie Gleeson and Warren Byerley weren’t able to recover from their knocks in time to make the trip to Hampshire.

That resulted in Jermyn moving into the midfield, Clive Makoni making a rare start up front, and Simkin changing the team’s formation following last week’s thrashing at Eastleigh.

Simkin added: “It was a far better performance than Tuesday, but then that was a case of how good Eastleigh were.

“We went 3-5-2 with the Nathan and Steve Walker and Jake McCarthy at the back, and it worked very well, they were hanging on at 1-1.

“We were missing Glees and Warren but we did okay, unfortunately okay wasn’t good enough.”