DORCHESTER Town manager Craig Laird is relieved to have taken “a lot of monkeys” off his side’s back after the Magpies’ 1-0 win over Basingstoke Town.

Laird’s men got their Evo-Stik Southern League Premier points tally off and running after Ollie Griggs’ winning header, and are set to face King’s Lynn at the Avenue Stadium tomorrow (3pm).

He told Echosport: “Sometimes it doesn’t matter how you win games, you just have to win them and that builds momentum.

“It’s taken a lot of monkeys off everyone’s back. We got our first goal on Saturday, that was probably the only ticked box we could do, now we’ve got our first clean sheet, we’ve got our first win and there’s lots of boxes we can tick and say ‘that’s the pressure off us a little bit’.

“We probably played better football against Banbury and lost, and probably didn’t play so good on Monday but won and that’s how strange the game is.

“But we were better in our own box and that made a massive difference. But that final pass, which we spoke about today before the game and at half-time and after the game, it has got to be better.

Laird is hoping for a similar display against King’s Lynn, a game the returning Tom Blair, Jason Brookes and Luke Winsper are all in contention for, however Ed Bastick is sidelined with a knee problem.

“Hopefully we get the same commitment and performance tomorrow. We’ve got to do all the same jobs like we did on Monday and be a little bit better again,” he said.