Magpies: Dorchester had best chances at Truro – Callum Brooks

After Harlain Mbayo’s header, Brooks’ men were trailing 1-0 at the interval of their BetVictor Southern Premier South clash but enjoyed good chances in the opening portion of the second half.

Notably, Tom Blair’s run and shot produced a flying stop from City keeper James Hamon – a save that proved crucial as striker Luke Jephcott doubled the hosts’ advantage before Noah Keats’ 90th-minute goal.

Speaking to Echosport, Brooks said: “To win football matches you need goals and to score goals you need to make chances.

“We had better chances than Truro, so they might’ve shaded the territory and possession stats 60-40, 55-45 but on clear-cut chances we shouldn’t have been behind.

“They were the kind of chances before the game, if we’d been offered the chances we had in the first half, we would have snapped your arm off.

“What you do need is one of those chances to go in and unfortunately they didn’t.

“Second half we knew we had to be brave in regards to getting the ball down and playing, instead of chipping it up to the centre-halves – that’s bread and butter for them.

“For half an hour we were really on top and we felt the anxiety creep onto them. Then the second goal killed us.”

Brooks added the Magpies would stay true to their methods given the misfortune of the scoreline.

He said: “But you come off and the opposition manager says ‘3-0 was unlucky, you don’t deserve that’ and it means very little. It’s an easy thing to say when you’ve won 3-0.

“At the same time, this is a side that’s just come out of the league above and without a doubt will be right up there.

“For periods we matched them but they had a little bit too much. We’ve got to go away and keep improving, keep believing in what we’re doing because we’ve got plenty of games coming up.

“If we show what we showed (against Truro) we’ll win more games than we lose, which is what this club has got to start doing.”