DORCHESTER Town Reserves’ assistant-manager Ryan Dovell was able to find the positives from the Magpies’ season despite a narrow cup final loss to Gosport Borough.

Rich Robson’s men made the final of the John Stimpson Memorial Trophy with a 2-0 win over in-form Salisbury Development, but lost 1-0 to a powerful Boro side.

Speaking to Echosport, Dovell felt his side had been “outmuscled”, but praised the season as a whole.

He said: “All the way through the season we’ve had some really good performances, not just as a team but singularly some players have started to progress and show their ability.

“All in all that’s probably the main positive of the season. Getting to a cup final is disappointing to lose but a very good achievement for a team like ourselves to get that far.”

But Dovell hailed his team, feeling they could have won the final. He said: “Our performance against Salisbury was excellent because we were down to the bare bones. The first team had a fixture so we had no assistance from them apart from Sol Ayunga, who played really well.

“We just got outmuscled by a bigger, more physical side.

“We had a few first team players in and Rich set us up really well. Unfortunately Ollie Griggs came off with an injury five minutes in and Tom Blair was sent off for a second bookable offence.

“Even with 10 men we still created opportunities, it just didn’t fall to us.

“On another day we would have pushed on and got a win, but it was a disappointing way to end the season.”