Magpies: Dorchester boss Callum Brooks wary of Watersiders

The Watersiders have caught the glare of the watching footballing public having achieved succession promotions into the seventh tier.

A startling rise up the pyramid of English football has been backed up by a strong start to the current campaign, with six points taken from a possible nine, compared to Dorchester’s three.

As a result, Magpies’ manager Brooks has had the Hampshire side watched twice – once himself.

He said: “I’ve had them watched and they’re a team that’s just won back-to-back promotions, which is a feat at any level.

“You don’t do that without an incredible amount of organisation and an incredible amount of togetherness and team spirit.

“It’s almost unheard of to go straight through two leagues like that. When it does happen you know there’s a lot of good things happening at that club.

“You look at the league table and they’ve picked up six points out of nine. We’re not expecting anything other than a really stern test.

“But I look at our group and we can go there and get three points.”

Brooks also responded to queries from Magpies’ fans regarding the deployment of winger Tom Blair in the central number 10 role during the 4-1 loss at Salisbury last time out.

He said: “There’s been times over the past two games where Tom’s been unplayable. He’s been a huge threat.

“Against Truro he powered past three players from a wide position and still found himself a (long) way from goal.

“We thought ‘let’s put him in a part of the pitch where, if he beats a player, he’s going to be in a really dangerous position’.

“He’s a threat from long-range shooting and, if you’re central, you’re going to get more chances to shoot. The other thing was we wanted to pose a bigger threat from crosses.

“As it happened, I changed it back fairly promptly because we weren’t high enough up the park for what we wanted to do.”

Dorchester’s Charlie Davis (hamstring) continues to be assessed ahead of the clash.