DORCHESTER Town came up trumps in a “pressure” situation at Bracknell Town, manager Tom Killick insists.

The Magpies won 3-1, becoming only the third side to defeat Bracknell away in the Pitching In Southern League Premier South in 15 fixtures this season.

Ollie Haste’s finish and Shaq Gwengwe’s astute lob handed the Magpies a dreamy start inside five minutes.

George Knight hit the bar for Bracknell in response but a determined Dorchester defence gave up little sight of goal, allowing Jack Dickson to make it 3-0 on 48 minutes.

READ MORE: Bracknell Town 1-3 Dorchester Town - report

Dorchester continued to restrict Bracknell, for all their attractive passing, until the 90th minute when Joe Grant scored a scrappy consolation via a deflection.

The result elevated Dorchester out of the bottom four from 20th to 17th ahead of another crunch clash at relegation rivals Tiverton Town tomorrow (7.45pm).

“Obviously, it’s going to be a pressured situation for us,” Killick told Echosport.

“With losing last week, I did feel there was quite a lot of pressure on the game and the players reacted really well to that.

“They picked up, Bracknell, they’ve won their last two. They’ve got players back and I have to say in possession they’re one of the best sides we’ve faced. They’ve got unbelievable talent in forward positions.

“The way we defended, we restricted them. They scored a scrappy goal at the end but they barely created a clear-cut chance. They had a lot of corners but we barely allowed them one chance.

“Against the calibre of opposition that they are, I feel that was a real testament to how good we were in terms of our work ethic and our desire to stop them from creating anything. It was very, very good.”

Asked if the two early goals forced Killick’s hand to protect the lead, he said: “No, we felt if we were passive and allowed them to be comfortable in possession, things would not end well for us because of the quality they’ve got.

“So, we set out to try and disrupt their possession as much as possible, be as aggressive as possible and I felt that was key.

“Shaq came into the starting XI playing down the middle and he was the catalyst for a lot of good things, particularly in the first half.”

Highlighting the tenacity of Dorchester’s defending, Killick confessed to being “proud” of the Magpies’ work ethic.

He said: “You can have games where the other team creates four or five chances and doesn’t take them and you’ll get credit for that.

“But what was exceptional was that we didn’t even allow them chances. The defending was so good that they couldn’t carve anything out of any real significance.

“In the first half they hit the bar from a half-chance and in the second half they scored from a deflection. Other than that, I can’t remember them having a chance of note.

“For us to do that away from home against a side with such an array of attacking prowess, I just was very pleased and proud.”

But Dorchester’s display was not all about their defence, as the Magpies also created the better chances.

Killick added: “Other than the goals we scored, we had probably two chances where we definitely should’ve scored, one in the first half and one in the second.

“It was just good all round, a really good balance between being very good defensively and also being a real threat in terms of our forward play.”