DORCHESTER crashed out of the Buildbase FA Trophy after a disappointing display in the First Round Qualifying replay against Salisbury at The Avenue Stadium.

Ben Morris replaced the injured Dan Strugnell in defence and Jason Brookes replaced Tom Blair in the only other change for The Magpies from Saturday’s 3-3 draw.

The match started disastrously for the hosts, as just five minutes were played striker Holmes scored for Salisbury, giving them an early lead.

Dorchester were forced into an early substitution after ten minutes as River Smith replaced the injured Callum Rose.

Salisbury were much the better team throughout the first half and it took till the 35th minute for the hosts to register a noteworthy chance.

Morris shot well from distance, forcing the Salisbury ‘keeper to spill the ball out for a corner which ended up being fruitless for Callum Brooks’ side.

Tom Bath, fresh from his brace on the weekend, came close just a few minutes later, but he had to watch his effort go frustratingly wide of the post.

The referee chose to add on one minute of added time and as the teams neared the break, the away side doubled their lead.

Oseni flicked on a free kick at the near post on the stroke of half time to put Salisbury in a strong position to progress through to the next round.

n continued on page 52

Dorchester, pushing for a way back into the match, forced a corner just over five minutes after the restart.

Tom Bath involved again, cut in from the wing and fired a shot which the keeper did well to parry wide. Once again, the corner came to nothing.

The Magpies defended well after this, with ‘keeper Shane Murphy making a number of saves to ensure Dorchester had a slimmer of hope going into the final moments of the match.

It wasn’t to be however, as Salisbury but the game beyond any reasonable doubt with five minutes left on the clock.

Knowles’ shot from outside the area was too good for Murphy to stop and Salisbury stormed into a three-goal lead.

After being pegged back so late on Saturday to take the game to a replay, this will be a tough pill to swallow for Brooks and his players.

The Magpies boss told Echosport: “We’re disappointed when we lose any football match. It’s extremely disappointing.

“Aspects of the performance are disappointing, and we’re disappointed to go out of one of the high valued cup competitions.

“To go into a game of that importance without Dan Strugnell, Charlie Davis, Kyle Egan, Luke Winsper and Tom Blair is always going to be tough.

“They’re players who would get into any side. We then lose Callum Rose who’s been a really important player, all of that was disappointing.”

Brooks also said the timing of the goals in the first half were damaging to his side’s chanced of progressing.

“The idea was to defend in a compact way and cause them problems when we got the ball.

“We didn’t do that today. We had a ball split our defender and full-back and then you’re 1-0 down.”

“You’re not going to get away with conceding two poor goals early, missing six players and lacking quality on the ball.

“It’s a difficult night and one that we just have to suck-up and then regroup on Thursday.”

Speaking about moving forward from tonight, Brooks said: “We need to improve in all aspects.

“First of all, we need to get our injured players back. We had a group of fourteen today with only two outfield subs.

“I’m looking to reinforce the group. To have the number of injuries we’ve had is abnormal.

“There’s been a lot of positives over the last few months with some of our performances and we need to nit some of our good games together.

“It’s not as simple as saying we need to be better with the ball because we need to be better without the ball. We need to be better in both boxes.”

Dorchester’s next match is at home to Harrow Borough in the BetVictor Southern Premier League on Saturday November 2 (3pm).