ST LEONARDS 0, Dorchester 3

Dorchester piled on the agony for St Leonards and moved level on points with leaders Grantham at the top of the Dr Martens Eastern Division with a comprehensive win at The Firs last night.

The Sussex side have now suffered seven successive defeats under four different managers - and that's just in November!

The Magpies victory was as convincing as the scoreline suggests, for the crisis-torn home side never threatened to rip up the form book once Mark Morris' men had eased into a sixth minute lead.

Simon Radcliffe started the move by setting Justin Keeler free behind the home defence. The former Bournemouth livewire broke into the area with almost embarrassing ease and crossed from the left, Matt Groves saw his shot blocked and Danny O'Hagan stabbed home after a spot of pinball on the goal-line.

Patrick Ankrah brought Mark Ormerod into action with a snapshot from 25 yards which the Magpies' keeper dealt with comfortably before Dorchester struck again after 12 minutes with another scrambled effort. This time, Saints failed to deal with a right-wing corner by the outstanding Marcus Oldbury, Groves was again narrowly foiled but O'Hagan poked in his second from even closer to goal.

The Magpies looked comfortable without creating any clear-cut chances in the next half hour but turned up the heat and went close to adding a third goal just before half-time.

Referee Ian Bentley, whose performance was almost

perfect, waved away Dorchester's optimistic penalty claims after an alleged handball by David Henham, Groves was inches away from reaching Keeler's cross and O'Hagan blazed over from ten yards.

John Odlum did well to block O'Hagan's shot as the keeper advanced to the edge of his area and, with Odlum now beaten, Oldbury struck a first-time shot narrowly wide when the ball rebounded to him 30 yards from goal.

Any fears of a fightback by the struggling Saints were extinguished after 59 minutes when O'Hagan notched his hat-trick.

All-action Oldbury won a tackle 25 yards from goal, allowing Groves to shoot from the edge of the area. Odlum managed to parry the ball out as it appeared destined for the bottom corner and the keeper somehow pushed O'Hagan's follow-up effort on to the crossbar.

But his superb double save went unrewarded as he was eventually beaten when O'Hagan headed in the rebound from six yards.

Simon Fox, a former team-mate of Ormerod at Brighton, was just off target after creating space for himself in the area, but Keeler and Jamie Brown almost rubbed more salt in Saints' gaping wounds with another goal in the closing stages.