A DESPONDENT Steve Thompson lamented an “abysmal” second-half display that saw Dorchester Town crash to a 3-0 defeat to Hendon in their Evo-Stik Southern Premier South clash at the Clayson Stadium.

A penalty plus an 84th-minute strike from the league’s joint-top scorer Ricardo German, either side of a Shaquille Hippolyte-Patrick goal, handed Dorchester a second home league defeat of the season.

Dorchester are now perched in 18th place, two slots above the drop zone, while Hendon rise to third.

And Thompson did not hide his dissatisfaction at what he perceived to be a poor defensive showing.

He told Echosport: “I thought the first half we were the better team, but second half we’ve been taken apart. I don’t know how we can go from a team that didn’t concede a chance in the first half to one that looked so ragged in the second.

“We had a great chance just after half-time when Aaron (Rodriguez) should have scored with the cross from Luke Winsper. Maybe if that goes in it’s a different game, but it didn’t.

“Then, when we conceded the penalty we went to bits after. It’s very disappointing. I can use the excuse about younger players but at the end of the day it happens too often when we concede one – we look like we’re going to concede two, three, four.

“Even though we created a few chances in the second half it’s a 3-0 defeat. There’s no more I can say about it.”

Thompson believes his side’s lax defensive performance was due to a lack of concentration and application.

He said: “I think it’s both and maybe experience in certain

situations. The first goal is a penalty, Tiago (Sa) made the foul. The second we’re trying to dribble out from the back and got caught.

“So, should Tiago have made the tackle from the wrong side of the player? Probably not. Was he about to shoot? I’m not sure.

“Second goal it’s definitely a mistake trying to dribble out. You lose it, you pay the consequences sometimes and we certainly did there.

“It’s frustrating. We’re certainly nowhere near good enough, even though in the first half we looked much the better team.”

Magpies’ boss Thompson did praise Luke Winsper for playing in an unfamiliar forward role and once more addressed the continuing absence of a suitable centre-forward in his squad.

He said: “We’re obviously missing a centre-forward, we haven’t got one. Luke tried hard up there. We’ve tried Tom Blair, Alex Stafie, Ash Pope’s injured.We can’t seem to get anyone that can get us that solidity up there.

“That’s a problem. There’s problems all round. That’s what we have to deal with at the moment.”

Thompson added he had to find solutions “somehow” but was pleased with the initial reply to last week’s 2-0 loss at Tiverton.

He said: “I got the right response in the first half in that we were the better team, we hit the post and I don’t think they had a chance first half.

“Obviously the second half, like at Tiverton, was very poor. Is it lack of fitness, or tiredness? I don’t think so. Do young players find concentration hard for 90 minutes? Probably they do.

“We have to find the answers somehow but the second half was abysmal. Even though we looked like we might score going forward, we looked so ragged at the back that it could have been more.”