GRAHAM Kemp insists there should be no shying away from taking responsibility for abject performances like the one the Magpies produced on Tuesday night.

Dorchester may have staged a miraculous recovery against Bideford to claim a point from 3-0 down, but Kemp’s men were a clear second best for virtually the whole game.

That was something not lost on the county town manager, who described his side’s display as “inept”.

And while Kemp has to “clutch at straws” for any positives to take into Saturday’s FA Cup tie with Hendon, he knows that being held accountable for poor performances is something that has to be met head on.

“I don’t know what has gone on at this club before, I’m not really interested, but I think the lads, the supporters and the committee have taken a bit of a bashing over the last year,” he said.

“I do think that has shown a little bit in the players and their body language isn’t great.

“I’m not making excuses for anybody, we all have to plod on, roll our sleeves up and get on with it. The easiest thing to do is to go to ground, don’t speak to anybody and hide away, but that won’t get you anywhere.

“You’ve got to put your head above the parapet and front it out.

“There’s nobody else to blame for that performance (on Tuesday) apart from the lads in the changing room and myself.”

Commenting further on Tuesday’s match, he added: “It’s easy to play well when you’re 3-0 down, there’s no pressure on you and you can take a chance.

“You can try and express yourself and at 3-0 down you’ve got nothing to lose, but the time to be like that is when it’s 0-0 in the first minute.

“We didn’t show any real emotion or belief until it was 3-2 and then all of a sudden we got the bit between our teeth.”

Although the Magpies may have only come to life in the last few minutes against Bideford, Kemp will be keen for them to have that same enthusiasm in their play from the start of Saturday’s cup showdown.

He said: “We have to start somewhere. We have to forget the previous 85 minutes and build on the last five.

“You clutch at straws sometimes but I have to look forward to Saturday.

“If I thought we were going to play like we did in the first 85 then I’d probably lock the office door and not come out for a month.

“This is non-League football and it does mean rolling your sleeves up, getting muddy and dirty, getting an elbow, a cut eye or a thick lip.”

*Dorchester and Weymouth will now be playing in the Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division after the Southern League agreed a sponsorship deal with Bostik.