DORCHESTER Town captain Callum Buckley praised his Magpies teammates for staying up and claimed: “A club like Dorch shouldn’t be any lower than this division”.

Centre-half Buckley has enjoyed a superb season for the Magpies and was one of the contenders for player-of-the-year at the Avenue Stadium before Alfie Stanley took that honour.

The former Aldershot and Weymouth defender, who can also play at left-back, has the luxury of knowing where his future lies next season after signing an 18-month deal back in December.

And Buckley spoke highly of the Magpies’ squad for navigating their way out of a “predicament”, achieving safety in Pitching In Southern League Premier South with two games to spare.

READ MORE: Magpies shrug off seventh late loss of season

He told Echosport: “I’m delighted. We understand that this year’s been tough, we’ve had tough moments in games where I feel like we should’ve taken points or maybe even got wins.

“We’ve found ourselves in a bit of a predicament. The boys have been superb since the Merthyr game.

“People say: ‘Should we celebrate staying up?’ but I think we should.

“It’s a younger group and to have that mentality to come back when you’re low on confidence, we’ve learned how to win.

“It’s massive for the boys and we deserve it. They’re such a good group, that’s why I came in the first place.

“A club like Dorch shouldn’t be any lower than this division, as simple as that.”

Asked how big the achievement of survival is, Buckley said: “It tells you a lot. After the Merthyr game we were all very disappointed.

“And the problem with that is that we had a long time off afterwards to think about that. We came back really strong through that.

“We could’ve easily gone with a negative attitude towards it, but we came back really well.

“It’s a young group, we have to make that clear. We’ve got some experienced lads but it’s a younger group who are still learning football at this level.

“It’s massive, it’s huge and full credit not just to the players but the staff as well.

“Woodsy and Glenn (Howes) have worked so hard, (Steve) Dodge is around it, Churchy is around it, Karl (Lindsay, kitman), the physio Lauren (Watts).

“It’s a big achievement. We can really go on next year and take this and use it to push on.”