DORCHESTER Town boss Steve Thompson admitted he is encouraged more by the Magpies’ strength of recent results than the battling display shown against Weymouth three weeks ago ahead of their Boxing Day derby on Wednesday (1pm).

Earlier in December, Thompson’s men drew 2-2 having relinquished a 2-0 lead after Ben Seymour’s sending off, the Magpies then going on to lose their Dorset Senior Cup quarter-final 3-1 on penalties.

Coming into the third Ridgeway derby of the season, Dorchester are searching for their first win over Weymouth in eight games but have picked up six wins in nine games – form that provides Thompson with optimism ahead of the clash.

He told Echosport: “We take heart more from the fact that we’ve won seven, drawn three and lost three of our last 13 games, more so than (the 2-2 draw) because that’s more consistency, which is what we’re looking for.

“We did produce a good performance in the draw with Weymouth.

“Both teams try and play a passing game. I don’t think it’ll be blood and thunder, I think it’ll be more trying to outdo the opposition with intelligence, movement and passing.

“I think we can get a positive result, we’ve drawn two of our last three games with them so we’ve had two positive results in that respect.”

Dorchester go into the derby dust-up looking to secure a first win under Thompson’s management in the fixture.

However, the Magpies will be without defender Josh Bailey, who Thompson confirmed has damaged his anterior cruciate ligament and will miss the rest of the season.

Thompson signed Brennan Camp from Bournemouth as cover for Bailey, but the teenager missed Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Met Police.

Commenting on the loss, in which Antonio Diaz’s goal was swamped by Oliver Knight and Jonathan Hippolyte strikes, Thompson said: “We were the better team first half but they were the better team second half.

“It’s disappointing that we’ve lost the game. They’ve not been beaten since September 1 and at half-time we were in a position to achieve that and had played well.

“Unfortunately second half we struggled in all honesty, they were the better team. The second half was definitely theirs.

“I don’t put it down to anything, that happens quite often in football.

“In football, maintaining form over 90 minutes is one of the hardest things to do.

“I suppose from a neutral point of view you would give Met Police a bit of credit, they came out and were much better in the second half.”

Dorchester afforded the Blues two crucial mistakes which led to both goals, although Thompson was keen to generalise the errors, rather than single out players.

He said: “They were mistakes for both goals. I’m not going to go and point out players. Players make mistakes throughout the game and two cost us goals.

“The two players that made the biggest mistakes played very well in the first half.

“I’m not going to go into detail, that’s general. If you look at most goals, there’s generally a mistake made so that’s nothing out of this world, but it’s still frustrating.”