PHIL Simkin hailed the Magpies’ never-say-die attitude as they performed an opening-day smash and grab.

A 1-0 defeat appeared the most likely outcome as the clock ticked down after James Walker had given visiting Eastbourne a 64th-minute advantage.

However, Dorchester had clearly not read the script and second-half substitute Elliot Ward levelled with a superb set-piece before fellow debutant Jamie Reid pounced in stoppage-time to send the home side, and their manager, into a state of ecstasy.

Simkin, whose side visit Staines tomorrow night, said: “Obviously I’m delighted. We wanted to get a good start and you can’t do much better than that.

“We have beaten a really good side and they will be up there this season.

“They deserved to be in front and they had better possession than we did.

“But our togetherness has got us out of many scrapes over the last couple of years and it did again on Saturday because we didn’t give up.

“It would have been easy for them to throw their arms in the air and say it’s not been our day but they didn’t do that – they kept going.”