DORCHESTER Town’s reaction to losing five games in a row by winning back-to-back matches has delighted Magpies’ assistant-manager Nick Crittenden.

The county town outfit responded to a disappointing run of results in the best possible way with league and cup victories over Paulton and Chippenham respectively.

And Crittenden is not only pleased with the reaction of the players, but he firmly believes that the current squad at the Avenue have what it takes to achieve something tangible over the next few seasons.

“With young lads, you can’t expect them to win every week, it’s about making slow progress,” he told Echosport.

“We’re very happy with the way the boys have reacted after a difficult four or five games before Paulton.

“We’ve worked the lads as hard as we can and they have shown us they don’t want to be a win one, lose one team.

“We want to build a team that achieves something, whether it’s the play-offs or top six, and then we can build on that next year.

“I think we’ve got the right group of players that can help us do that.

“That was our best 90-minute performance of the season last Tuesday (against Paulton) and I think we would have beaten anyone in our league that night.

“We were definitely back to the way we wanted to play and I think we showed it again on Saturday.”

Someone who played an integral part in those two recent wins was Ben Watson.

And Crittenden has nothing but praise for him and fellow striker Jonah Ayunga.

“It’s been a good week for Ben,” he added.

“We think he has been playing well for us this season but before Tuesday night I think he’d only scored one in 15 games.

“He then scored a hat-trick on Tuesday and got one on Saturday.

“It looks better for him and it looks better for us, and we’re really pleased for Watto because he has worked so hard.

“We knew the goals would come eventually because he has done it for the 10 years he has been playing.

We’re just really happy for Ben that things have changed for him.”

On youngster Ayunga, he said: “It’s difficult for Jonah because he has suddenly come from not playing men’s football at all to playing it every week and he is probably going to play 40 games for us this season.

“It’s a massive step for him but he has taken it in his stride because he is a good player.

“He’s learning every single game and is only going to get better from now on, but there are going to be times when we need to look after him and maybe give him a rest.

“It’s important we’ve got the depth in the squad to do that.”

Meanwhile, the Magpies yesterday discovered they will host Ryman League Premier Division side Kingstonian in the second qualifying round of the FA Trophy, with the tie to be played at the Avenue on Saturday, November 14 at 3pm.

  • Dorchester’s reserves entertain Wimborne Town in the John Stimpson Memorial Shield tonight (7.45pm). Their last outing was a 4-0 league defeat at Moneyfields.