CORFE CASTLE 4

DORCHESTER SPORTS 2

DORCHESTER Sports crashed to a poor 4-2 defeat at lowly Corfe Castle as their Dorset Premier League win drought continued for a sixth game.

Sports have gone nearly two months without a triumph, their last coming in a routine 3-0 victory over bottom side Sturminster Newton United.

Boss Ashley James would have been buoyed by the superb start his side made, stand-in captain Jason Read tapping home an inviting Adam Steele corner on 10 minutes.

From there, Sports’ performance nosedived with a catalogue of defensive errors leading to the rapid concession of three goals.

With Corfe chasing an equaliser, the hosts were duly handed a path back into the game when Courtney Johnstone headed home a cross unmarked.

Corfe pressed on and with another cross being allowed to arc into the box without pressure, goalkeeper Antony Frost misjudged the trajectory of the delivery, leaving Johnstone to nod a simple chance into the unguarded net at the back post.

Johnstone completed his 10-minute hat-trick when Carl Hopkins let the ball roll underneath his studs, presenting the striker with a clear route to goal before slamming past Frost for 3-1.

Despite failing to trouble Corfe from open play, Sports clawed a goal back in a near carbon copy of the first goal, Read burying a Steele corner with a header for a 3-2 half-time deficit.

Sports again found chances hard to come by in the second half and Corfe completed the scoring on 65 minutes when Josh Baker slotted home after Frost parried a Johnstone effort into his stride.

James’ men had no riposte and the game fizzled out for Corfe’s first win in five games.

Speaking to Echosport, James was deeply disappointed by the manner of his side’s display.

He said: “It was dreadful. It couldn’t get any worse. The only way we looked like scoring was from a couple of corners that we scored from.

“We didn’t really create anything and the defending for the goals is as bad as you’ll see. Just a terrible, terrible afternoon. The only way is up.”

On Johnstone’s hat-trick, James said: “It was just bang, bang, bang. Game over in the space of 10 minutes. It’s hard to take.

“Considering we didn’t look like conceding a goal from open play in the last couple of weeks, to go and do that is baffling.”

Sports host Shaftesbury Town Reserves at the Clayson Stadium on Saturday (2pm).

Sports: Frost, Hopkins, A Gould, W Gould (P Thomas 65), A Steele, Quinton, Samways, Read, Rawlings, Turland, Gatehouse (J Steele 65). Sub not used: Amor