DORCHESTER Town boss Leigh Robinson admits “serious questions” will be asked if his Magpies squad cannot emulate their battling Dorset Senior Cup performance in league matches.

Robinson’s men pushed National League South side Weymouth closely, despite losing 4-2, with the Magpies level at 2-2 after 80 minutes.

In total, 40 places separate the old rivals in the league pyramid, but the Magpies’ improved display has given Robinson a taste of Dorchester’s potential.

Tomorrow (3pm), Wimborne visit the Clayson Stadium in what many onlookers view as a must-win BetVictor Southern Premier South clash for the hosts.

Robinson said: “The key thing, and I have stressed it to the players, is it’s very easy to turn up and really put a performance in (against Weymouth). I knew we’d turn up and put a performance in.

“I’ve been in football long enough to know that lads are turning up knowing it’s a cup final, they’re against a quality side and they know if they don’t perform they’re going to give us a right old beating.

“Realistically, we haven’t seen that level of performance on a Saturday. We can be proud of that on a big stage, in a big fixture with a big crowd.

“But (tomorrow), lesser fixture, lesser crowd, can you still give us the same? If you can’t, we’ll have to be asking some serious questions.”

With Dorchester unable to select six players through ineligibility for the contest, Robinson was quizzed on whether he had a selection problem.

“A little bit,” he replied. “It sounds mad because we’ve conceded four goals, but defensively we were pretty good.

“One was a counter-attack when we had to push forward and nick a goal, and one was an individual error. On the whole we defended pretty well.

“The only issues we’re going to have will be legs because we put an awful lot of effort in. The last 10 minutes there were some awfully tired legs out there.

“Luckily for us we’ve got the numbers in the squad with the six lads who were ineligible to come in.

“Certainly food for thought in terms of selection and performance, but more so we’ve got to make sure everyone’s fit and recovered enough to give us 90 minutes of that intensity you saw (on Tuesday).”

Charlie Madden and Callum Rose (both foot) are out, while Billy Lowes (broken shoulder) is still a major doubt.

Emile Ngoy, Jordan Rogers, Jamie Laird and Nathan Walker are among the players set to return.