DORCHESTER Town boss Steve Thompson feels the Magpies are conceding “too many goals” after Hitchin Town came away with a 4-1 win at the Avenue Stadium.

Goals from Josh Bickerstaff, Lucas Kirkpatrick and Elliott Bailey, plus a Jonny McNamara strike, gave the Canaries all three points, despite Trey Charles’ red card and Mo Baghdadi’s late free-kick.

The defeat was Dorchester’s fourth in a row and third straight loss in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division, a run which has seen them lose every game in December so far.

Speaking to Echosport after the match, Thompson described Hitchin as the more “clinical” side of the two.

He said: “I thought they deserved the win. They played very well first half. They were very clinical – had five chances and scored three goals.

“But giving away three goals was a massive disappointment. Obviously from our point of view we’re letting in too many goals at the moment.

“We look like we’re going to score goals but in the last three games we’ve only scored one in each game and when you’re letting in three, two or four you’re not going to win games.

“I thought we started the second half quite well but had a massive blow with the fourth goal going in. After that it was easy for them. They had a player sent off which helped us.

“We created four or five good chances in the last half an hour but we can’t seem to hit the target, we’re not very clinical.

“They showed us what being clinical is all about in that first half.”

Thompson also believed that the Magpies had a taste of their own medicine, with Hitchin employing a high-energy pressing game to force mistakes from his side.

He said: “I thought they got it forward very early. The 10 and the seven in wide positions were very quick to get forward to support the nine or to press our full-backs and it worked for them.

“They did to us what we try to do to other teams, and which we have done. We did it to Stratford, we did it to Royston. But unfortunately we didn’t take our chances, they took their chances.

“That’s football. Sometimes you go through a spell where things don’t happen for you.”

Thompson was dismayed with all four of Hitchin’s goals, but particularly the manner in which the third and fourth were conceded.

He said: “There was a man given (Bickerstaff) for the corner, but he got blocked. You could say that’s good play by them.

“The second was really disappointing because we weren’t set up right for the corner and they attacked and they were two on two.

“The third and the fourth are probably the two that annoy me most. It just seems like a forward runner got in behind us with 10 yards of space on both.”

But Thompson did see positives late in the game, and praised all three Dorchester subs for their contributions.

“I thought all three made an impact. Ed (Bastick), Tom (Blair) and Dave Jerrard all did well when they came on.

“It’s hard to judge because that spell was a spell 11 v 10 and we were on top and we were creating chances but they were a big part of that,” he said.