DORCHESTER Town boss Robbie Herrera admitted the Magpies showed Weymouth “too much respect” in the first half of their 5-2 friendly loss at the Avenue Stadium.
In front of a bumper crowd, the latest renewal of the Ridgeway derby produced the goods with a seven-goal thriller – and Weymouth were 3-0 up by half-time.
Dorchester allowed their National League opponents too much time on the ball and three goals came from headers, including Ahkeem Rose’s opener.
The Jamaican winger slammed home a second in the 24th minute before Brandon Goodship nodded through the legs of keeper Alan Walker-Harris.
Ash Wells scored a goal against his former club – and refused to celebrate – before Brad Ash’s deft touch and nudge past the onrushing sub keeper Craig Taylor made it 4-1.
Sam Bayston reduced the arrears to two goals before Weymouth’ striker Tom Bearwish grabbed a headed goal against his former club with eight minutes remaining.
READ MORE: Dorchester Town 2-5 Weymouth - match report
Speaking to Echosport, Herrera lamented a poor start from his players.
He said: “The first half we came out and showed too much respect. It was the old cliché, we looked like rabbits in the headlights.
“We allowed them to move the ball, keep switching it, no tackling, didn’t get close enough to anybody.
“We’ve come in at three down, it’s not acceptable. It’s something that has crept into this club over the last few years and something we’re trying to stamp out.
“It wasn’t anywhere near good enough and I let the players know in no uncertain terms at half-time.
“We got a response in the second half, I thought we were better. But in the first half we didn’t pass the ball, we kept going long.
“Everything we’d worked on in the last four weeks in training and in the games we played just went out of the window.”
He added: “They need to be brave and get on the ball, be better in terms of their decision making than what they were, especially in the first half.
“Second half we put in a better performance because we passed it a little bit, caused them a problem and scored the two goals.”
Herrera revealed Dorchester had worked on keeping tight to players in midweek – only to concede three goals from deliveries in the box on match day.
He said: “We’re disappointed with the goals we’ve conceded because we’ve conceded three headers – that isn’t good enough.
“We need to be tighter – which we have worked on in the last week. We need to be tighter in the back four and stop crosses.
“You think to yourself: ‘Are they good enough to do what we’re asking?’
“The next few weeks and first five or six games of the season will tell us.
“It’s disappointing when you work on something, you go through it with them, they understand it, do it in training, but it’s got to be replicated on the pitch when there’s pressure.”
Dorchester drew the second half 2-2 and Herrera was pleased with the improvement in standard.
“We applied more pressure and could’ve nicked a couple more goals, which is the pleasing thing,” he said.
“Again, defensively, we’re going to have to score four to win a game at the moment. That needs to be tightened up.”
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