DORCHESTER Town manager Leigh Robinson admitted his reaction to beating Wimborne Town 1-0 was one of “pure relief”.

Robinson tasted victory in the BetVictor Southern Premier South for the first time since taking over as boss in early January – nine games ago.

The Magpies also banished a chastening run of 18 winless league games as James Stokoe’s second-minute own goal proved enough for three points.

Bottom side Dorchester are now seven points off Beaconsfield in 21st but 11 off Yate – and absolute safety – in 19th.

Speaking to Echosport, Robinson felt a good result had been close for some time.

Asked for his response to sealing victory, he said: “Pure relief. Me and Robbie (Herrera, assistant) have been saying for weeks that in our careers we’ve never gone two months without a win.

“It’s been quite strained, a different experience – one I never want to repeat again.

“We’ve been making improvements week-by-week so we felt (the win) was coming.

“Even on Tuesday even though we lost (4-2 against Weymouth), we took quite a lot of positives and a little bit of momentum into (Saturday).

“I also felt that in the last few weeks we’ve been due a bit of luck and we had a bit of luck with the goal which set us on our way.

“We could’ve scored more, of course, but I’m sure everyone will understand in our situation we would’ve taken any win, however it came.

“We needed to get something over the line to change the mood and prove to ourselves we still can do it. Everyone is relieved to be experiencing that winning feeling again.

“Our job’s now to make sure that feeling becomes the norm, not the exception.”

Robinson felt the early goal was crucial for Dorchester’s positive mindset.

“You could see it gave us confidence,” he said. “If we’d have nicked a second goal at that point, you would’ve seen a whole different Dorchester team because the confidence would’ve been flooding through everyone’s veins.

“We didn’t quite manage to get it through a couple of missed chances.

“You need to earn your luck in football and I think we earned that, perhaps on Tuesday. That manifested itself (on Saturday).”

Against Wimborne, Dorchester played a 4-4-2 system with Tom Bath and Jordan Rogers up front, often joined by winger Tom Blair in a fluid 4-3-3.

Robinson revealed such an attacking formation has long been his preference, berating inconsistency in selection as reason for its infrequent use.

He said: “It’s very hard as a management team to put your mark on a team, or implement your ideas and philosophy if you have to change it every single week – like we have done.

“That’s probably why we haven’t had an identity so far, because it’s been chopping and changing all over the place.

“With what we did (against Wimborne) we started 4-4-2 and stumbled across it a little bit. Against Weymouth we had to play 4-4-2 and it worked pretty well.

“We thought ‘we’ll keep it the same’. We kept it 4-4-2 until the 60th minute when we hadn’t got that second goal and got the three (up front) back into midfield.

“To be honest, we looked a threat all game.”