DORCHESTER Town manager Steve Thompson rued overdue substitutions as the Magpies crashed out of the FA Trophy following a 2-1 defeat to Heybridge Swifts at the Avenue Stadium.

Goals from Sam Bantick and Luke Callander helped the Swifts overcome an early Phil Ormrod goal deep into normal time as the Isthmian League North side – one tier beneath the Magpies – progressed to the third qualifying round.

Boss Thompson had been keen to build a run in a cup competition, but Dorchester only remain in the Dorset Senior Cup after the Heybridge loss.

Speaking after the game, Thompson admitted he was unhappy with the result.

“It was disappointing the way it finished. We all have to hold our hands up sometimes. If we win we’re all together and we all lose together.

“(I was) probably 10 minutes too late making the substitutions. The two players I was going to take off on 70 minutes actually recovered better and it was two others that tired in the end.

“It was 1-1 when we made the substitutions. If you make them at 1-0 sometimes it can work – it has worked for us in recent games.

“Certain people really did tire in the last 20 minutes. We all have to look at that situation and try and not let that happen again.” he said.

But Thompson was encouraged by a diligent display from his side, despite tiring noticeably in the second half.

He said: “Those players have given the club and me everything. If there was a lack of quality and scrappiness in the second half we have to live with that.

“It’s disappointing to go out of the cup. We all have to look at ourselves and think ‘how could we have done better?”

Thompson also praised Dorchester’s fluent first-half showing, arguably his side’s best opening spell of the season to date.

“I was really pleased with the first-half. We pressed them very well and we won the ball back but we also created a lot more than we have been creating lately, we had five or six good chances.

“The second half was a scrappy game of football and it’s won and lost on small margins,” he said.

When asked whether missed chances had cost Dorchester, Thompson felt they had.

He said: “We were made to pay in the end. There’s no guarantee you’re going to take the chances. You see that even happen at Premiership level with five or six chances in a half and only one taken or sometimes none taken.

“I was pleased we were 1-0 up. It could’ve been more but we went in at 1-0 up and I was pleased with the performance. I can’t say that of the last two home games.

“We performed very well in the first half but the boys are devastated. We’ve gone out and we really felt we had the passion and the chance to get through a couple of rounds.”