v Hitchin (A)

GOAL!: 0-1

Tom Blair after just five minutes

SUBS: Griggs on for Davis and Powell on for Mehew a few moments later

FT: 0-1!

It's nights like last night that remind me why we all do it in the first place. Given the respective teams form, I think every one of us were expecting a hiding to nothing. If we had kept the score down to 2 or 3 I would have probably taken it on the chin and move on to the next few big games coming up.

It was clear that confidence within the team was very low so it was vital we got at them early and we did that, deservedly taking the lead on 5 minutes when Ollie Davis' perfect cross was excellently headed home by Tom Blair. It's fair to say we rode our luck at times for the remainder of the game, but for the first time I've seen under Laird we looked solid, organised, each player knew their jobs. Franklyn for me had his best game in a Dorchester shirt since he rejoined us from York, and Murphy put in an outstanding MOTM performance with some match winning saves. Hitchin could have been playing all night and I don't think they would have found a way past him and our defence.

Hitchin made it nervy and piled on the pressure, but Powell had a big opportunity with about 10 minutes to go when put through one on one from an angle, but could only force a save and corner. Great celebrations at the end from the 15 or so away fans, which is a very respectable turnout for a wet Monday night I think.

As Cherry said though, last night's win cannot be isolated and with 3 big games coming up against Redditch, Hayes & Yeading and Kings Langley, it's vital we back up a credible 6 points out of our last possible 9, with a win at Redditch on Saturday. Lets finally get some momentum going. UTM