DORCHESTER Town boss Steve Thompson believes his players “deserved to win” after their 3-1 loss on penalties to Weymouth in the Dorset Senior Cup quarter-finals.

Thompson’s men had dominated the opening exchanges of the 2-2 draw, Antonio Diaz firing home his first goal for the club in his 26th appearance.

Ben Seymour clinically slotted the Magpies 2-0 up in the 29th minute, notching his seventh goal in eight games since joining on loan from Exeter City.

But Brandon Goodship pulled a goal back two minutes later, before Seymour was sent off for raising his hands to Ashley Wells face in retaliation for a niggling challenge on the ground.

After their seventh sending off of the season, Dorchester battled hard with 10 men for 55 minutes and were unlucky to see Jordan Ngalo’s powerful shot force extra-time in the 90th minute.

Both sides had opportunities to win but substitute Ash Pope spurned two wonderful chances – a one-on-one and a volley six yards out – as Weymouth held on to earn victory via spot-kicks, the Magpies having missed their opening three penalties.

Speaking to Echosport, Thompson only felt disappointed with the result rather than the performance of his charges.

He said: “I thought the starting team’s played very well over the last three, it played well (against Weymouth). Petulance has cost us.

“Even when we went down to 10 we had chances to win it. I’m very disappointed, but at the end of the day not with the performance, with the result.

“The players deserved more, they deserved to win. But it’s very hard to play that length of time. We’ve played 85 minutes with 10 men.”

Elaborating on what was a terrific Ridgeway derby, Thompson highlighted the chances his side conjured despite being down to 10 men.

He said: “We created chances with 10 men, we’ve had very good chances to win in extra-time. You either score them or you miss them – there is pressure on players to score. We’re missing our striker now for three games.”

“We were playing really well and wanted to keep it up. They got one back pretty quick from a good move but it was really tough to hold on then.