DORCHESTER Town boss Glenn Howes insisted tomorrow’s opponents Truro City have set the yardstick for performance in the Pitching In Southern League Premier South.

Truro, who tomorrow visit the Avenue Stadium (3pm), appear in an almost exclusive battle for the title with Weston-super-Mare this season, ahead of Chesham and Poole.

The White Tigers thrashed Dorchester 4-0 at Bolitho Park in August after keeper Brad Snelling’s concussion left the Magpies without a recognised goalkeeper.

And Howes namechecked the Cornish side as one of the standard-setters as Dorchester, sat ninth, battle for a play-off place in the chasing pack.

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He told Echosport: “When we went down there they really taught us a lesson in what’s required to compete, certainly in the play-off region.

“Perhaps they have aspirations of going one better. I haven’t seen much better than Truro, Weston, Chesham and even Poole – almost the big four.

“The rest are trying to snap at everybody’s heels. Between the second division, if you like, it’s extremely close.

“For us to get anything out any of these games against these teams we have to be at our very best and more.

“That was a great example (against) Chesham where I thought we were extremely good in that first half but we just fell short of producing that in the second, it’s a tall order.

“If Truro do that against us, it will be very difficult for us to stay at pace with them, as it was down at their place.

“That’s our challenge now, to show an extra determination, more fight to make it more difficult for Truro and not roll over and have our bellies tickled. That’s not us.

“I felt that a bit too soon against Chesham. We need to replicate the first half for the full 90 for us to get anything against Truro.”

And Howes is up for the challenge, discussing his ambition to “distort” the way Truro play after seeing Chesham beat them 3-0.

He said: “As a manager when you see a team have difficult results on different journeys, you’re always intrigued in terms of the tactical setup and what messages they’ve given to the players.

“Unfortunately, we are Dorchester, we’re not Chesham. We’re completely different profiles and sets of players.

“We can’t go ahead and play the way Chesham play or try and produce their gameplan. We’ve got to bring our own gameplan to the table.

“Hopefully it will be close enough or good enough to be able to get something out of that game.

“We have our way of playing, we have our style, our identity – so do Chesham and Truro.

“It’s an extremely robust and proven method that they’ve got success over the last few years. It’s up to us to try and distort that.”

Callum Buckley (illness) is the only doubt but Olaf Koszela (broken ankle) is back with parent club Torquay after having surgery.

Under-23s star Ben Symes has returned from university and could feature to replace Koszela.