DORCHESTER Town boss Steve Thompson believes the Magpies cannot “underestimate” lowly Gosport Borough when they clash in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division tomorrow (3pm).

Thompson’s men travel to the Aerial Direct Stadium looking to register only their second away win of the season, and will fancy their chances against the league’s basement club.

Dorchester recorded a 7-2 victory over Boro in November and currently lie in 19th place, 26 points above the Hampshire side.

Speaking to Echosport about the encounter, Thompson is keen to avoid a repeat of the 2-0 loss at Slough and uphold the playing standards shown in Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Hereford.

He said: “Obviously we want to be back on the (winning) trail, we’ve lost the last two. Gosport happens to be a good chance to do that, but you can’t afford to underestimate them.

“We still have people out so we won’t have a full-strength side. We should go into it with confidence and the improved performance (against Hereford) was important.

“If we play like we did against Hereford I think we’ll win the game, but if we play like we did against Slough there’s no guarantee we’ll get anything out of the game.”

Thompson went on to reference the Magpies’ good form against teams below them in the table, and feels it is vital to guard against complacency.

He said: “I think it’s important to put that across, but I don’t think (complacency) has happened.

“If you look at our results against the bottom teams we beat Gosport 7-2, Farnborough, St Ives – it’s only Bishop’s Stortford and Kings Langley that have taken a point off us.

“I don’t think we’ve lost to any of the bottom four when we’ve played them. I think we’ve done generally well against those teams and we hope we can continue that.”

He added: “I think Gosport are just looking at points probably to get above Dunstable and not be the one relegated with the restructuring coming up.

“They’ve got it all to play for to try and finish above them.”

Thompson confirmed that Callum Rose would be available for the encounter – the last game in the Plymouth Argyle loanee’s impressive spell – and revealed he is working to extend the teenager’s stay at the Avenue.

“He’s still available for the Gosport game but I will be speaking with Plymouth Argyle to try and extend that.

“Callum is enjoying himself but it’s up to Plymouth Argyle and especially as they’ve had a couple of injuries to centre-backs in their first team squad, so I’m not taking anything for granted,” he said.

Dorchester are expected to be without Sam Lanahan (concussion), Luke Winsper (ankle) and Phil Ormrod (groin) against Boro, and Thompson revealed no new signings were planned before the game.

He said: “Sam is recovering well but he won’t be ready, nor will Luke and Phil. I’m pretty sure all three of those will be out.

“It’s sad to lose Luke, he’s done well since he came back in, but there’s nothing we can do about that – it’s going to be a few weeks.”

He added: “Probably (no signings) but I’ve said all along that if I can get a centre-forward in I’d get one. They’re very hard to find.

“Everyone wants to be a number 10 or come from out wide, not like Phil. Trying to find that type of player is increasingly hard these days.

“We had one with Rory Fallon but that only lasted two games. We do have to find that centre-forward to play the way I want them to play.”