DORCHESTER Town have secured the services of midfielder Dom Panesar-Dower for the upcoming BetVictor Southern Premier South season.

Panesar-Dower, who initially joined the club in June 2017, has started all five of the Magpies’ pre-season friendlies and scored in the 5-0 win away at AFC Totton last weekend.

After signing up for a third season, Panesar-Dower said: “I’m over the moon – it’s a club I’ve been at for a while now, and I don’t really see myself being anywhere else signing on for this season.

“The players have been amazing, and the coaching staff too – with Cal (Brooks, boss) coming in he’s been brilliant and Jody (Rivers, first-team coach) coming in over the summer as well, it was a straightforward decision for me to sign again for another year.

“The bond between the team has just got better and with some of the football we’ve been playing in pre-season.

“I’m just buzzing to get the season started, to be honest.”

Brooks said: “Me and Dom spoke at the end of last season, and he had a lot of frustrations last year with limited game time, and prior to my arrival he felt a little bit aggrieved about the way he had been treated on a couple of occasions.

“We felt it was best that before we pinned him down we needed to work out what was best for Dom to do this season – he needs minutes, and I suppose that the bigger picture is he needs to feel that he’s got a chance of getting a shirt if he deserves one.

“So we agreed to see how pre-season went, if it was good for both parties and the feeling was that we could move forwards together, then that was something we would do.

“Now Dom has also looked at a couple of other clubs during pre-season, and I let him do that and to be honest he needed to do that – but what’s it’s done is confirmed to Dom how much he wants to be at this football club, and the quality of our work at this club.

“We’ve noticed that Dom’s really come in since the second of July with the bit between his teeth – he’s been first class in training, he turned up fit to be honest, and he’s shown some real quality.

“So as pre-season has gone on, we’ve found ourselves playing him quite a lot, and the feel-good factor is there so we’ve decided to move forwards.

“We’ve made it clear what we expect of Dom and things we feel he needs to improve upon, and he’s been fairly open with us about the kind of opportunities he is looking for, so we’ve worked out that our visions are aligned.

“I thought Dom had a really bright performance capped off with a goal last Saturday, and what I will say is that he is one of the hardest working, honest young players that I’ve come across.

“He’s a joy to work with really – he’s a very likeable character and I look forward to working with him over the coming season.”