DORCHESTER Town face another “must-win” game against Wimborne Town tomorrow (3pm), according to assistant boss James Wood.

The Magpies make the short trip to New Cuthbury to face a Wimborne side that must earn three points to keep their automatic survival hopes alive.

Ahead of the Dorset derby, Dorchester occupy 19th – the final safe position in Pitching In Southern League Premier South, while Wimborne sit bottom in 22nd.

Dorchester come into the contest with successive 1-0 defeats to title-chasers Farnborough and Met Police, but confidence remains high given standards in those games.

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Glenn Howes’ men also have the excellent 2-1 win at fellow relegation battlers Kings Langley under their belts.

“It’s a must-win game, there’s no hiding from that,” Wood told Echosport.

“It’s a fixture, looking at previous performance levels, we’re very confident going into it.

“Obviously we know Wimborne do possess threats, they’ve got players with ability, it’s a local derby – there’s no getting away from that.

“Regardless of where teams are in the league, your local derbies always have a lot more spice. The players know each other well, some have played for both clubs.

“It’s going to be a proper derby game, I would imagine.”

Wood feels Dorchester will be battle-hardened after their recent run of fixtures.

“We always think the best way for players, especially young players, to take on board what we’re trying to tell them, to adapt to pressurised situations, is to go through it themselves,” he said.

“They’ve had that situation at Kings Langley, they’ve followed that up against Farnborough and Met Police with two excellent performances.

“We’re looking for more of the same.”

Dorchester are also keen to avoid a repeat of the Merthyr loss, which saw the Magpies well beaten 3-1 by the league’s then bottom club.

Wood said: “We can’t take Wimborne for granted, as it’s been proven against Merthyr when we came unstuck.

“We will fully prepare (the players), we’ve had the luxury of watching Wimborne a couple of times as well.

“You have to guard against any complacency. The added spice of a local derby hopefully gets the boys in the right frame of mind.”

On Wimborne, he added: “They’re a team that are obviously low on confidence, we’ve been in that predicament at times.

“But they’ve still got players with ability, still have an attacking threat, a lot of young lads and it’s a case of if they have things their own way it’s going to be a proper game.

“We have to make sure we’re fully on it and the focus really has to be on us. We have to concentrate on ourselves and executing the things we want to.”

Dorchester are expected to have a fully-fit squad, with Callum Buckley (hamstring) and both Tom Soares and Yemi Odubade (family) available.