DORCHESTER SPORTS 4

WAREHAM RANGERS 1

DORCHESTER Sports consolidated their position at the top of the Dorset Premier League after beating Wareham Rangers 4-1 at the Avenue Stadium.

Sports were able to keep the same starting outfield 10 but centre-back Dan Peart had to take the gloves with all four of the club’s goalkeepers miss- ing.

Ashley James’ men started brightly and were on the front foot for most of the first half and might have taken an early lead when Jamie Symes was fouled in the box, only for Symes’ penalty to be well-saved by the visiting keeper.

But Sports kept pushing and Symes gave his side the lead when his header from a Jamie Samways corner found the back of the net after 15 minutes.

Symes then doubled Sports’ lead with a good strike on 22 minutes and Gareth Will made it 3-0 with a looped shot over the keeper on 25 minutes to give the hosts a dominant lead going into half-time.

Sports failed to start the second half as well as the first, but defended well. Any sense of a comeback was gone when Brandon Heal raced through to smash his effort into the net for his first goal of the season.

Ashley White then smashed the bar from 20 yards but Wareham got a deserved consolation goal for their hard work when Luke Phillips scored a late penalty to finish the game 4-1.

Speaking to Echosport after the encounter, Sports’ boss James was “delighted” to remain top of the league.

He said: “All we can do is win our games and see where it takes us.

“We’ve got massive games coming up and we’ve got all of them away from home.

“I think eight teams can mount a serious challenge, everyone can beat each other.

“As long as we stay in touch we always give ourselves a chance.

“We’re delighted to be up there but we’ll take it one game at a time.”

James added the most pleasing thing for him was the way Sports have begun games in their previous matches.

He said: “The past two games we’ve gone 3-0 up after 25 minutes.

“It’s really positive the last couple of weeks, we’ve got our tails up again now – we can score a lot of goals.

“It’s really pleasing and makes the afternoon a lot easier in the later stages with that commanding lead.”

Sports: D Peart, Heal, Beasley, Lochrie, Read, White, Symes, Turland, G Will (J Will 65), Samways (Steele 65), Rawlings (Hewitt 45)