STRAIGHT-TALKING Dorchester Town boss Glenn Howes refused to blame Lewis Waterfield’s injury as a catalyst for the Magpies’ 6-1 humbling by Poole Town.

With the Magpies 1-0 up, Waterfield went down injured and left Dorchester momentarily down to ten men, Poole banking the numerical advantage with Cameron Murray’s equaliser.

Waterfield was taken off immediately after the goal but, rather than criticise the Dolphins, Howes pointed to their killer instinct in exploiting the opportunity.

“That’s the ruthlessness of a side when they go after you," he told Dorchester’s media team.

"They realise you’re down to ten men and you don’t have as much structure as you usually have.

READ MORE: Dorchester Town 1-6 Poole Town - reaction

“They go after you and Poole certainly did that. It’s not the catalyst and pivotal reason, as with the set-pieces, that we’ve been undone.

“We’ve been undone because we haven’t been able to sustain that aggressive nature in our football that we set out to do.

“That stops with me and I understand that. We need to put measures in place.

“It’s probably too late this season to do that but we can do an awful lot of reflection and reviewing.

“Although it can be a little bit reactive during the season, once the season is finished in the next seven to 14 days we can analyse it in a lot more detail then choose, us and as a club, which direction we go in.”

Dorchester host Hendon on Saturday (3pm).