DORCHESTER Town boss Leigh Robinson admitted the Magpies’ 5-0 loss at Hayes & Yeading United signalled a “harrowing day” for the club.

It look less than two minutes for Hayes’ striker Immanuelson Duku to break the deadlock, with Toby Little scoring a second after Ben Rowthorn earned a straight red card for a late tackle.

Hassan Jalloh then added a fourth before Little’s deflected strike made it 4-0 in a grotesque first half.

Duku notched his brace on the hour before the game petered out – Dorchester having goalkeeper Shane Murphy to thank for keeping the score at 5-0.

Dorchester’s loss sees the county town side go a 12th BetVictor Southern Premier South game without victory.

Speaking to Echosport, Robinson hopes the defeat is “as bad as it gets” for the ailing Magpies.

He said: “It was a completely harrowing day – an awful experience.

“I thought last week even though we lost (3-2 to Truro) there were some positive signs of recovery but it’s straight back down to Earth with a bump.

“It’s another sign of the task ahead. It was a tough game anyway, we made it hard for ourselves by conceding early.

“We were struggling to stay in the game at 1-0 anyway but the red card quite early in the game made it incredibly difficult, which meant we had to make two changes early on.

“We never got to grips with the game after that – a very difficult day and one we’ve got to make sure we don’t repeat.

“I warned a few weeks ago that it might get worse before it gets better and sometimes you’ve got to hit rock bottom before you start going forwards. Hopefully this is as bad as it gets.”

Robinson had no gripes about Rowthorn’s red card, adding: “Everyone on our bench, as soon as it happened, went ‘oh jeez that’s a red card’, so no complaints about that.

“It was late and with excessive force. Probably one of those that 10, 20 years ago wouldn’t have been a red but nowadays no complaints at all.”

Asked if he’d had a more hideous first half of football, Robinson replied: “No, I honestly don’t think I have.

“The stark reality is that it could even have been a lot worse. Shane was absolutely magnificent in goal and pulled off some unbelievable saves.”

He added: “We had to replace Luke Winsper who got injured and then we had to take one of the strikers off for a midfielder.

“The first half was all over the place having to deal with those changes and the red card as well. After the second goal it became a pretty impossible task.”

Dorchester visit high-flying Swindon Supermarine tomorrow (7.45pm).