DORCHESTER Town manager Steve Thompson believes the Magpies are “better” than when he took over the helm after passing one year in the job.

Saturday’s 2-0 FA Cup second qualifying round loss to Tiverton Town marked Thompson’s one-year anniversary with the club, having begun with a 1-0 victory at Dunstable Town in his first game in charge.

Since then, Dorchester finished 19th in the league having experienced a nightmare start to the season in which 23 goals were conceded in seven games, complete with five defeats by three goals or more.

And Thompson feels bringing in an elusive centre-forward is key to piloting the Magpies to “the next level”.

He told Echosport: “I feel we made a rapid improvement but I think we’ve just hit a patch where we find it hard to get to the next level. That’s my job to find that.

“I do feel that having a centre-forward that we want will give a few per cent to the players.

“But, whether a centre-forward on its own can take us to that level remains to be seen – I mean moving up from a team in the bottom half to one challenging for the play-offs.

“The team was getting beaten 4-0. Now we’re in a place where we’ve been beaten heavily once or twice in a year as opposed to five times in seven games, but it’s moving up to the next level.

“It could be that we need to bring in more positions.”

He added: “I’m trying my best to move the club on. I think we’re better than when I got here. This season I would like to see the club challenging for the play-offs. At the moment I think we’re off that.

“However, the league is very tight. Maybe one find or loan would tip the balance from a team that are in the bottom half of the table to one that can challenge for the play-offs.”

Thompson’s tenure has been generally well-received by Dorchester fans, and the Magpies’ management and playing staff were given a raucous reception at Ladysmead despite exiting the FA Cup.

The modest Thompson said: “That’s obviously down to the fans. I’m really pleased and a little bit surprised. The support we got was tremendous.

“It was loud throughout the game and supportive of the staff and players in the bar afterwards. I’ve seen places if you play and lose an FA Cup game people would be slaughtered.

“But people were very supportive and that was lovely to see that they’re patient.”

Further commenting on the Tiverton contest, Thompson felt the Magpies had contributed to their defeat.

He said: “We gave a penalty away for the goal and a needless free-kick for handball so we’re the architects of our own downfall in many ways.

“The game was there to be won. It wasn’t like Tiverton put in a five-star performance to roll us over. They’ll probably say they’ve played reasonably well and we haven’t played well.

“I didn’t think (the referee) had a good game, but I can’t use that as an excuse for the defeat.

“Let’s be honest, they’ve scored two goals, we’ve scored none. The referee hasn’t stopped us scoring a goal, they’ve had two penalties, hit the post.

“The ref had a poor game but that’s not the reason for our defeat.”