MAGPIES’ player-manager Mark Jermyn is not intimidated by other clubs in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division, who he believes pay players “frightening wages” in comparison to the Magpies.

Dorchester Town have accumulated eight points from their opening five league fixtures and could have possibly had four more if they had been more clinical in front of goal.

The county town club have been restricted to a pair of frustrating stalemates against Frome and Dunstable at home in their two most recent tests.

But Jermyn believes the potential in his squad will shine through this term and is not concerned about what he estimates is a massive gap in finances.

“Everybody knows we have a small squad and, financially, we can’t compete with a lot of other teams at the moment, but that doesn’t mean we can’t compete on the pitch,” he told Echosport.

“It’s not like money has gone up from last season, we have just chosen to pick a certain group of players and play a certain way.

“I would defy anyone to say that we are not a good footballing side. We are, we just haven’t been able to find the net in the last couple of games.

“We want to be as competitive as we can and, when you look at it, you are only as strong as your bench.

“On Saturday we were carrying a couple of people on the bench and we also had to call on young Luke Woodland and Sam Old.

“When you look at the bigger budgets in the league, they have players that are on frightening wages compared to ours, certainly down the road (at Weymouth).

“When you look at what they can carry on the bench. I think most weeks they probably have half of our budget sat on their bench, so it will be interesting to see how we compete against them and against Poole as well.

“But I would back our players against the majority of the players in our league. I think we have a good group.

“I’m hoping that the football people see here is not bad, for our standard I think we have some good players and they are a joy to watch.”

And Jermyn is set to be helped by the return of a number of faces to his ranks, including the likes of young striker Jonah Ayunga, Ashley Nicholls and Matt Oldring.

He added: “From when we took Jonah on we always knew that he would be away for part of the start of the season.

“Jonah didn’t actually envisage that he would be anywhere near the first team, let alone one of our key players.

“I think that speaks a lot for him. He is certainly someone that has caught the eye of teams in our league and the league above as well, so we will be looking forward to getting him back.

“I spoke to Ashley Nicholls, he has just got back and is hoping to come in with a view to being involved in the two games over the weekend.

“We have five players to return which will give us a massive boost.”