Dorchester TOWN 1 HINCKLEY UINITED 1 A POINT was poor reward for an enterprising first day display from Dorchester that lacked just a little more sharpness in front of goal.

They left Hinckley trailing in the strikes on goal stats and home keeper Mark Ormerod didn't have a shot to save after being left helpless by Leon Jackson's unchallenged header after just ten minutes.

But for all their neat approach work and a flurry of half chances, they only succeeded in beating a busy Tom Whittle in the visitor's goal through Martin Shepherd's powerful 25th minute header.

Manager Mark Morris admitted he was disappointed not to have opened with a win.

"They are not a bad side and played with five at the back which made it difficult for us," said Morris. "But we looked very sharp at times and got behind them quite a few times and probably should have taken all three points.

"As a first effort back in the Premier Division it wasn't bad and I know we will probably play worse and win.

"It would have been great to have got the win, but the most pleasing thing is that we showed we can deal with this standard whereas the last time we were here we would probably have got beaten today especially after giving away a bad goal early on.

"That could have left us with our chins on the floor, but we showed great resilience to overcome that with a terrific team performance."

Whittle's acrobatic one-handed tip over from Mark Jermyn's swerving 30-yarder denied Dorchester a sensational start before Hinckley's first attack brought them a goal.

A right wing corner was knocked back out to the taker and the Magpies were then slow to close Jamie Lenton down. And despite having everyone but Matt Groves back to help out, they left Jackson with a clear header from six yards when Lenton whipped the ball in again.

Shepherd controlled a Matt Hann cross and had Whittle swooping full stretch to his left to turn away his 13th minute effort and then saw his overhead kick clear the crossbar when Matt Holmes' corner brought mayhem in the goalmouth.

Holmes teasing run produced another chance for Shepherd but this time defender Andy Penny lunged in to deflect his goalbound strike for another corner.

The pressure brought dividends however when Mark Jermyn surged forward to feed Hann again and this time Shepherd muscled Penny aside to meet his perfect centre with a superb header.

Justin Keeler sent a 20-yard screamer just inches too high and saw another drive come back off Whittle who then brilliantly blocked Shepherd's pounding follow up.

The industrious Matt Groves failed to come out for the second half after injuring an ankle five minutes before the break, but his replacement Matt Tubbs was soon causing Hinckley just as many headaches.

Shepherd only half connected with his low ball into the goalmouth and a prone Whittle, who had gone down too early, managed to reach up and grab the ball.

Then Tubbs read the bounce of Ormerod's long clearance better than Penny, wriggled goalside of the entire defence and had Whittle reaching high to haul down his clever lob.

With Holmes and Mark Rawlinson getting through tons of work in midfield the Magpies looked odds-on to snatch a winner.

But Keeler's sharp-shooting deserted him on at least three occasions and when he did make good contact he saw one rocket whistle a foot wide from just outside the area and another charged down by a defender.

Hinckley's bench were calling for the final whistle when Darren Crowley hurled himself into the path of another piledriver from Holmes - but they almost profited from the six minutes Bath referee Tim Curtis added on when Michael Walker got away with what looked like a shirt tug on Chris Smith as the ball bounced into the home area.