GRAHAM Kemp felt his side were unlucky not get something out of their 2-1 defeat to Dunstable Town at the Avenue on Saturday.

The Dorchester boss said he saw a “vast improvement” in the hosts following their thumping by Cirencester four days earlier.

And while he knows the visitors’ two first-half goals were largely down to defensive errors, Kemp was eager to take the positives going into tomorrow’s clash with Bideford.

Speaking to Echosport after the defeat to Dunstable, he said: “If there’s any glory in defeat then we had it.

“I said to the boys before the game I wanted them to go toe-to-toe with Dunstable and no-one in the ground could say we didn’t do that.

“The lads gave me everything I asked of them and could hardly walk when they got into the dressing room.

“We went toe-to-toe with a team in second who have only lost one game all season, and without a doubt they wouldn’t have had a harder game than that.

“I thought we were exceptional in the second half and matched them for 88 minutes, we just made two mistakes in the other two minutes and conceded two goals.”

He went on to add: “It was a vast improvement but I’m very disappointed for the lads because they’ve lost a game that I didn’t think they deserved to lose.

“We’ve scored and hit the post twice so we’ll take the positives and move on.

“The supporters watching must have seen a difference in the attitude and mobility of the team, which is what you have to have.

“You can have an experienced side but you need youth as well, and you need legs to get around the park.”

A mix-up between Callum Buckley and Alan Walker-Harris gifted Dunstable the lead inside two minutes.

And for Kemp it is mistakes like that which make a big difference at the end of the season.

He said: “The difference between teams finishing in the top three or four and those that won’t will be the ones at the top don’t make those mistakes.

“Unfortunately the eight goals we’ve conceded this week have all been through mistakes and teams haven’t had to work hard enough to score against us.

“We need to make it harder for other teams to score.”

Commenting on matters off the pitch, the Magpies’ chief said “something may happen” this week with regards to bringing in a striker following the departure of Dan Cann.

However, Kemp said he was not prepared to “throw money around willy-nilly” and “sign anybody because other people want me to”.

*The fans’ forum originally scheduled for tonight has been postponed until a later date.