DORCHESTER Town boss Steve Thompson feels that the Magpies’ 2-1 loss to Salisbury in the BigFreeBet.com Challenge Cup is not significant for his side in the “big picture”.

Thompson’s men crashed out to a late Lewis Benson goal after a David Jerrard strike cancelled out Marvin Brooks’ opener.

And the former Woking number two told Echosport that his players had to “learn from each game” after a first defeat in his tenure.

He said: “You never like losing a football match, but in the end, in the big picture it’s not such a big deal.

“We have to learn from our mistakes and we have to learn from each game.

“We even looked at 1-1 like we could be the team that won it, we had two or three chances. Phil Ormrod turned and swivelled and put it wide, Gary Bowles had a header and I think there was one other chance as well.”

But Thompson was glad to have had the fixture, which he says has allowed him to gather more “knowledge” of his team.

He said: “It was another chance to see some players that haven’t played in the first two games and it gives me more of a knowledge of the team.

“There’s quite a big squad here to be fair. I was surprised that there were so many players here. The first training session I think we had 22 players including two keepers. I have to assess them and decide which ones are going to be for me.

“That’s not easy. It takes two or three weeks but some players will get more opportunities than others. Some players have had opportunities, some haven’t. Obviously given the situation we’re in I have to put out the strongest team that I feel is ready to play each game.

“Some players came in and showed me some good stuff.”