Dorchester Town can beat the dreaded drop

Going into this weekend’s round of Pitching In Southern League Premier South games, Dorchester had a two-point cushion on the bottom three.

That was until Storm Eunice forced the postponement of their fixture at Farnborough and Kings Langley won 1-0 at Merthyr.

At Step 3 this season simply being in the bottom three does not spell relegation, though.

The bottom two clubs in each of the four divisions in England’s seventh tier will go down, with the four third-bottom sides placed into a feeder pool.

READ MORE: Dorchester slip into bottom three with 10 games to go

Of those four teams, the club with the worst points per game (PPG) tally will join the other eight relegated sides.

As it stands, that unlucky club is Dorchester.

Their 0.78 PPG is significantly worse than the other three at-risk clubs in Nantwich (1), Brightlingsea (0.93) and Lowestoft (0.92).

Suddenly, the reality of potential relegation is beginning to hit home at the Avenue – and all this for a club that still has 10 league matches up its sleeve.

Dorchester are currently on a 10-game winless streak in the league and have not won since a 3-1 victory over Harrow in December – what was Dorchester’s third straight home win.

Since then, performances have often been positive without taking the points to match.

Back in October, that familiar narrative accounted for Glenn Howes’ predecessor, Robbie Herrera.

The irony is that sweeping changes have been made this season in a bid to take the club forward, avoiding the situation they now find themselves in.

The Magpies are in a healthy financial state, have invested in the playing and stadium budget, overseen ground renovations and more.

With all those things in place, it was decided Herrera was not the man to take Dorchester forward and chairman Scott Symes brought in a serial winner in Howes.

After Herrera’s abrupt exit, Howes lifted Dorchester to 16th but this latest barren run has sucked the Magpies into the bottom three.

If Dorchester did not think they had a relegation battle on their hands before this weekend, they probably should now.

Gloomy statistics aside, there is every confidence that Dorchester can haul themselves away from the drop zone, as Howes attests.

Dorchester Town boss Glenn Howes Picture: DAVID PARTRIDGE (Image: DAVID PARTRIDGE)

Prior to the Farnborough postponement, he told Echosport: “We’ve got all faith and confidence in terms of our ability and performance.

“We genuinely believe we can compete against anybody in this league and positions in the table are completely irrelevant.

“We’re full of buoyancy and that should come out in our play. There’s no distinct lack of confidence or faith.”

On the winless run, Howes added: “The boys don’t really take too much notice of that.

“We’ll do everything we can to win a game of football, as we have been doing in previous weeks. That won’t change.”

While performances at home have generally been excellent, Dorchester’s away record of two league wins in 16 games must improve.

The Magpies face Swindon Supermarine at home on Saturday in what is a precursor to ‘Mega March’ and a run of fixtures that could define their season.

In two weeks, bottom club Merthyr visit the Avenue and Kings Langley await seven days later.

Promotion-chasing Met Police then travel to the county town and a Dorset derby with Wimborne follows in early April. Months don’t get much more important than this.

Crucially, the Magpies have the quality in their ranks to get them out of trouble.

Their forward line, although short of goals in recent games, has proven goalscoring pedigree with Alfie Stanley and Olaf Koszela both closing in on 10 goals for the season.

Yemi Odubade is a vital source of experience and goals and the Magpies’ midfield has also chipped in, with Sam Bayston pushing Stanley for top-scorer honours.

Dorchester do have injuries in defence to Tiago Sa and Thiago Caze da Silva but the emergence of left-back George Calverley has tempered the loss of Sa.

Harvey-Joe Bertrand impressed on debut at centre-half and the Magpies are further marshalled by the know-how of skipper Callum Buckley and Ashley Wells.

There are also high hopes for loanee Bournemouth midfielder Jack Wadham, who was denied his debut on Saturday by Storm Eunice.

So, Dorchester have more than enough in their ranks to bridge across to safety.

They’ve been here before, of course.

Back in the 2018/19 season, new boss Callum Brooks also had 10 games to escape the drop. The Magpies achieved survival with a superlative 6-0 win over Tiverton in their ninth game.

It’s now down to Howes to emulate that achievement and rediscover the winning touch found in November.

Should he succeed, it would lift the Magpies from a position they really should not be in, given how well they’ve played this season.