STRIKER Ben Seymour earned plaudits from another forward – assistant-manager Trevor Senior – as Dorchester Town beat AFC Totton 3-1 in their FA Trophy second qualifying round tie at the Clayson Stadium.

Senior, a former Reading marksman, praised the Exeter loanee after his brace helped the Magpies to overcome a strong start from the visitors, taking his tally to four goals in four games.

Callum Rose gifted possession to the Stags and Justin Bennett tapped home with 62 seconds played after Craig Feeney had seen his header brilliantly saved by Kingsley Latham.

Harry Kite equalised after a shaky start with a gorgeous 35-yard strike into the top corner before two predatory finishes from Seymour, one a tap-in and his second a neat finish from a tight angle, sealed the win.

Speaking after the game, Senior explained that it was “the sign of a good striker” to score twice after missing a one-on-one chance seconds earlier.

He said: “He’s sharp, he gets in the channel, he holds the ball up well for a small lad and he just knows where the goal is.

“He’ll probably be disappointed he didn’t get three but it’s the sign of a good striker that he missed a chance you think he’s going to score, then within a minute he’s put the ball in the back of the net.

“For me, that’s good signs and then he finished the second off well, as well. He’s good and that’s four in four games for him so that’s quite a good return.”

Senior also lauded the young Magpies side for showing “good character” to react to the early Totton goal.

He said: “It wasn’t the best of starts. We’d had reports on Totton and they said they’ll cause (us) problems going forward. I think we probably helped them a bit with that first goal.

“We didn’t deal with it well. It came from our throw, we gave it away, it went wide, the cross came in and we probably could have done better with that.

“And as he’s done many times, Bennett put the ball in the net. For 10 minutes we didn’t really get going. Once we got into our stride and we moved the ball quicker I thought we caused them a lot of problems.

“To come back from a goal down, it was a great strike for the equaliser from Harry. That just pushed us on to get two more.

“We’re a young side, it shows good character and that will help them. I thought we saw the game out well second half. The first 20 minutes of the second half we had some decent chances.

“We were a bit unlucky with Antonio Diaz, a shot saved by the keeper then he’s hit the post. I think Cameron Murray had a shot he perhaps could have scored with.

“We were creating and looking lively going forwards. I don’t think Kingsley Latham has really had a shot to save.

“Totton looked dangerous from set-plays and long-throws but as a defensive unit we dealt with it well.”