DORCHESTER TOWN 0

TORQUAY UNITED 2

Roberts 40, Pittman 48

DORCHESTER suffered their second defeat to professional opposition as Torquay United eventually eased to 2-0 win against the Magpies at the Avenue Stadium.

A penalty from James Roberts and an early second-half goal from Jon-Paul Pittman saw the Gulls to victory past the Magpies.

Magpies boss Steve Thompson conceded it had been a difficult game but was pleased by how he saw his side compete for spells.

Thompson said: “We have had three tough games in a week against professional teams.

“It has been quite hard to play those games in a week but we competed very well for 30 minutes. We were equally as good as Torquay who had the better of the play for the last 10 minutes.

“The lads have worked very hard today and like I say it has been a very tough week.

“It might have been a little bit tough at the end but on the whole we have competed very well against all three teams."

Thompson highlighted the different nature of the challenge that they have faced, pointing out that his side have had to get more used to not having the ball.

Thompson said: “You spend quite a lot of time off the ball and they have had to work hard to win the ball back but it has been prettty tough these past seven days.

“I think the team will have learned a lot and they would have got good fitness from that and also we only have the one pre-season game with Winchester and it will be interesting to see how we come out of those three professional games when we take on a team a league below on Wednesday.”

Dorchester had started the match well, with Ash Pope cutting inside after 14 minutes but his shot was easily saved by Shaun MacDonald in the Torquay goal.

However, after 20 minutes Tom Blair picked up a knock and was replaced by a trialist.

After 36 minutes the Magpies had a great opportunity through Luke Winsper.

Dorchester worked the ball well to the edge of the box, where Winsper lashed in but MacDonald made a superb save to deny the Magpies.

Dorchester only had themselves to blame for conceding however, when a foul on Roberts gave away a penalty and he duly stepped up to fire past Kingsley Latham.

The Magpies fell further behind soon into the second half, when Pittman got on the end of a cross from Jean-Yves Koue Niate and tapped in.

Latham had to be on his toes to produce a superb double save to deny Torquay after 66 minutes.

Two minutes later Callum Rose put a free-kick wide but Dorchester struggled to threaten late on.

Magpies: Latham (Trialist 73), Egan, Carmichael, Kite, Trialist (Stewart 73), Winsper (Trialist 59), Pope, Panesar-Dower (Lowes 59), Blair. (Trialist 20) Subs not used: Clarke, Trialist

Torquay: MacDonald (Burton 84), Wynter, Davis (Hall 56), Sokolik, Banton (Koszela 56), Bawling, Hyuga, Tanner (Keating 56), Niate, Roberts (Reid 56), Pittman (Williams 56), Leitch (Dickson 75).