DEFENDER Gary Bowles has been ruled out for tomorrow’s visit of Newport County (3pm) and is expected to be sidelined for the rest of the season.

The former Yeovil Town man injured his right knee following a strong tackle from ex-Magpie Steve Richardson in Tuesday night’s Dorset Senior Cup final defeat to Poole Town.

And Dorchester’s defensive options will be further restricted due to the absence of assistant-manager Ashley Vickers.

Vickers, who left Newport to join the Magpies last month, said: “Newport are a good side with a good manager who I respect very highly. Dean Holdsworth was good enough to let me go to Dorchester and I’m very appreciative of that so we had a gentleman’s agreement in place whereby I wouldn’t play.

“With Bowlesy getting injured on Tuesday night though Roy O’Brien and myself did contact Dean but it’s understandable that he’d still prefer I didn’t play in the game.

“I think Bowlesy will be out until the end of the season now. It was a heck of a tackle and he’s strained the lateral ligament in his knee, but there’s no cruciate damage, which is lucky.”

Fortunately for the Magpies, skipper Kevin Hill, who was sent off in the 2-0 extra-time loss to Poole, is available as his one-match ban kicks in on April 21.

Mitchell Nicholson is set to return while long-term injury victim Ivan Forbes, who has been nursing a serious knee injury since the opening day of the season, is edging closer to a return.

Vickers added: “One piece of good news is that Ivan is back doing some contact work. So he might even be able to come on for the last 30 minutes in the final game, but we’ll see how he goes in training.

“Hilly misses the last game through suspension and I’m banned for the final two games but hopefully we will have secured safety before the final day.”

Dorchester have not scored in 532 minutes of play and strikers Phil Walsh and Jacob Erskine, who both missed Tuesday night’s poor show, will be keen to end the barren run.

Vickers said: “Tuesday was awful and we need to put that behind us and think of the positive performances we put in against Hampton & Richmond and Worcester recently.

Mark Jermyn is set to make his 400th appearance for the club.

* Blue Square South rivals Team Bath are to withdraw from the Blue Square Conference at the end of the season. The result of their exit from the league could mean a reprieve for the 20th-placed side in Dorchester’s division.