How Glenn Howes has led a renaissance at Dorchester Town

Although those artists hailed from Italy more than 500 years ago, there appears to be a footballing Renaissance revival taking place in Dorset this very moment.

Because, for everyone connected to Dorchester Town, manager Glenn Howes and his team are sculpting their own masterpiece.

In October 2021 when Howes and assistant James Wood first came to the Avenue – their own version of the Sistine Chapel – they did not so much have a blank canvas as a big lump of marble to work with.

READ MORE: Dorchester Town 1-0 Truro City - match report

The Magpies were perched two points above the Pitching In Southern League Premier South drop zone and in the midst of their fourth battle against relegation in five seasons.

Howes and Wood not only had to rekindle a misfiring squad, they had to mould their inherited players into a preferred high-energy, tight press style.

Slowly but surely they began to chisel away at that marble, carving out their first victory by beating fellow relegation battlers Kings Langley 2-0.

Another handsome victory followed as the Magpies beat Wimborne 3-0 but a treble loss to perennial promotion hunters Weston, Truro and Met Police gave Dorchester a reality check.

A 3-1 success over Harrow got Dorchester back on track until a ten-game winless streak either side of Christmas left some fans fearing their club had dropped the easel.

February into March proved crucial as Dorchester beat Swindon Supermarine before losing 3-1 to bottom side Merthyr – arguably the worst performance of the Howes movement to date.

Thrust into a huge six-pointer at Kings Langley in the next game, Dorchester displayed the sort of mental fortitude Howes had been keen to instil.

Trailing 1-0 at the break, the Magpies produced two goals in three minutes to stun Lango and move three points closer to safety.

Harry McGrath, left, is mobbed after scoring the winner at Kings Langley (Image: CHRIS RIDDELL/KLFC)

The result galvanised Dorchester further and in narrow 1-0 losses to the Met and eventual promoted side Farnborough, the Magpies had genuine claim for a better outcome from both.

Brushing the defeats aside, they constructed a glossy run of three straight wins beginning with a vital 1-0 triumph over Wimborne.

They then beat Hendon 3-0 and ended with a 1-0 success at bogey club Salisbury to officially confirm survival.

Howes could now begin sketching out plans for the 2022/23 season and wholesale changes were made to the squad.

Only Callum Buckley, Tiago Sa, Alfie Stanley and Harvey Bertrand were retained, although this season’s star performer Charlie Gunson later joined the quartet in signing another deal.

It meant the likes of former Premier League midfielder Tom Soares, fellow midfielder Tom Purrington and defenders Oakley Hanger and Ash Wells were permitted to leave.

Ash Wells was among the players allowed to leave Dorchester in the summer

These were big calls, but suddenly Howes began to reveal his strategy brushstroke by brushstroke.

His preference for the modern type of box-to-box, attacking football could only be done with a fresh, hungry side laced with quality.

And his summer business, including shrewd loan deals for Olaf Koszela and Alex Moyse, was instantly rewarded as Dorchester picked up four wins in five matches to make a flying start in 2022/23.

The challenge was now to keep that form going.

Dorchester certainly have done that by zooming past the points total of the curtailed 2019/20 season, in which they were effectively saved from relegation by the pandemic.

READ MORE: Dorchester Town 1-0 Truro City - match reaction

The Magpies currently occupy sixth place in the standings after another landmark victory over title-chasing Truro – their first over a ‘big four’ side this season.

Dorchester have not finished higher than 13th since 2013 but they are in prime position to end ten years of poor results this season.

Such is the level of Dorchester’s rebirth, Magpies fans can dare to dream of a play-off place come April.

They are, after all, currently level on points with fifth-placed Tiverton and separated from the all-important top-five by goal difference.

Should they miss out on the play-off dream, the next step on their journey would almost certainly be to go on a big cup run – something that’s been missing for almost a decade.

Then, can they establish themselves as a ‘big four’ team when two of the incumbents of Weston, Truro, Chesham and Poole inevitably go up this season?

Echosport quizzed Dorchester assistant Wood for his take on the club’s revival.

“I think we’re about where we wanted to be, perhaps a little ahead of schedule,” he revealed.

Dorchester beat second-placed Truro on Saturday (Image: IDRIS MARTIN)

“We talked at length and we know it’s work in progress.

“It’s a new group, it’s a young group and we’re really going to reap the rewards at the end of the season going into next, which was our plan.

“But, we’re halfway through a season. We’re at Christmas. There’s a lot of games to play, so nobody’s getting too excited, nobody’s getting ahead of themselves.

“There has been progress, we knew it was a project. We knew we had to start again because the infrastructure was here with the under-23s and under-18s.

“You’ve seen that progression through but it is a new squad and it’s going to take time.

“There’s definitely been a progression. The support of the players has been excellent, so long may it continue.”

So, while Howes and Wood may not be da Vinci or Michelangelo they have certainly initiated a Renaissance at a club many have considered a sleeping giant of non-league football.

How far they can go and how long it will last remain to be seen, but Dorchester’s own artists are certainly painting the type of beautiful footballing picture not seen at the Avenue for a number of years.