DORCHESTER SPORTS 6

STURMINSTER NEWTON UNITED 1

DESPITE a comfortable 6-1 scoreline, Dorchester Sports made hard work of beating Sturminster Newton United in their Dorset Premier League Cup second round tie at the Clayson Stadium.

Sports required four goals in the last 10 minutes to inflate the margin of victory beyond a true reflection of the game as the hosts struggled for their usual fluency.

Striker Jamie West and defender Brandon Heal came into the side after last week’s 3-2 Dorset Senior Trophy loss to rivals Balti Sports and the former was soon involved.

Surging into the box, West was hauled down for a penalty and duly stepped up to tuck the spot-kick away into the bottom-left corner.

Just as they had against Balti, however, Sports’ play became sloppy and could not find a way past an organised Cherries’ defence for the remainder of the half.

West briefly halted that trend when he scored his second soon after the break, but United plugged away and were awarded several free-kicks in dangerous areas as Sports’ discipline faded.

From one such set-piece, Sports’ goalkeeper Ash Weeks saved well but Harry Boulton beat a static home defence to the rebound, sweeping up for 2-1.

Boulton’s goal created a grandstand finish but in the end Sports romped home with a crescendo of goals.

Oli Lowes danced his way through to score for 3-1 and, after seeing a goal disallowed for offside, West completed his hat-trick from Alex Stafie’s cross.

Romanian forward Stafie was next on the scoresheet when firing home Lowes’ cross and the former Dorchester Town hitman completed the scoring with a superb chip.

Speaking to Echosport, Sports’ boss James rued another lapse in concentration from his side after an early goal.

He said: “We needed the goal but unfortunately we didn’t kick on from there. We’ve played much better this season than we did in the first half.

“We didn’t play well enough first half and kicked on second half with the four goals in the last 10 minutes. The second half was much improved from the first. We really stepped it up and that was pleasing.

“They didn’t really have any chances. We defended really well all game but our passing and movement wasn’t great – we were playing too many long balls.

“We got a bit sloppy again going 2-0 up. It seems to happen after we score, we take our foot off the gas, which is something we’re going to have to address. We made it hard for ourselves when we didn’t need to.

“Second half we were very dominant and could’ve had seven, eight or nine.”

Sports: Weeks, Heal (Hill 55), A Gould, P Thomas, Smith, G Will, Samways, Hansford (Quinton 65), Lowes, Stafie, West (A Steele 80)

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