Match Preview: Southern League Premier Division South
Dorchester Town vs Basingstoke Town
When: Tuesday 21st October 2025 Kick-off 7.45pm
Where: The Avenue Stadium, Weymouth Avenue, Dorchester DT1 2RY
Dorchester Town (The Magpies), 2025-26 League Position 20th
Our battling deserved win at Gosport Borough, a team we have struggled to beat in recent years, pushed us comfortably away from the bottom four, with us looking upwards for the first real time of the season.
With the quick turnaround, we now head to Dorchester in the first of two match-ups in five days, tomorrow night in the league.
Last season we split the games with each team winning on their own park. In August 2024, we comfortably won 2-0 at Winklebury, via two second-half goals (Liam Ferdinand & Nnamdi Nwachuku). Then in our last game of 2024, trailing at halftime, a goal by Luis Le Paih and an own goal, gave us the lead until we conceded two goals late in the game and went down to a 3-2 defeat at the Avenue Stadium.
Our Opponents
The Magpies (Dorchester’s version that is), are managed by Tom Killick who is in his third season at the club, following twenty-year’s of managing at Poole Town.
Dorchester sit eight places below Basingstoke in one of the four relegation places (20th), with an overall record of Pld 12 Won 2 Drawn 3 Lost 7 and 9pts. Their home record sits as 1 Win, 1 Draw 4 losses, with the single win against Yate Town. Last Saturday they hosted Wimborne Town losing 2-0. Their leading goals-scorer is one of their new signings midfielder Thomas Smith from Taunton Town, who has seven goals on the season. They added two further strikers in well-travelled Brett Pitman, but he is now currently on loan at AFC Portchester. Jayden Crosbie, signed on loan from Torquay Utd in September, has one goal, and was on-loan at Gloucester last season. They also added winger/striker Joe Parker from Tiverton Town, after a number of spells at Gloucester City over the years. Previously at Newport County, Leamington & Chippenham. Parker has found the net four times this season. Another striker to note is Wayne Robinson, who joined from Salisbury in September 2024, but suffered a number of injury set-backs last season, but is back in the line-up now.
Apart from Tom Smith in the midfield, they have Luke Pardoe, who joined in February 2024 and has three goals this season. An exciting winger, he has also played for Poole Town & AFC Bournemouth’s academy. In the centre of midfield is likely to be Corby Moore, who joined towards the end of last season, after stints at clubs such as Bishop Stortford, Poole Town and Chelmsford. Wes Fogden returned to Dorchester after a 15-year absence, where he spent time in League 1 & League 2 with AFC Bournemouth, Portsmouth & Yeovil, as well as playing for Havant & Waterlooville & Dorking Wanderers. Marcus Daws is a former Northern Ireland U21 player who is an exciting winger, having had spells at Bournemouth at Poole Town.
The defence starts with their current captain William Spetch, another ex-Poole Town player who is also known to play in midfield too. Ollie Haste is back for another season on the left-side of the defence, having signed permanently from Yeovil Town in August 2024. Jack Dickson, is back for his third season with the club, and is highly regarded as a right-sided defender. Harvey Wright, is a powerful and dynamic centre-back who joined in the summer from nearby Wimborne Town. Another former Poole Town player back for his season is left-back Harry Hutchinson, who was at the Dolphins previously. In goal currently is Joe Besant, a former AFC Bournemouth academy keeper spent last season at Northern Irish Premier League side Larne, having spent two years in Portugal. He has also has Southern League Premier experience playing for Bracknell Town.
Our Basingstoke Town Side
Manager Dan Brownlie was forced into a number of changes, following a serious injury to Robbie Gallagher, and a couple of knocks for other players from Tuesday’s win against Chertsey. Whatever the changes, we saw a Stoke side battle and fight throughout the ninety minutes, in a ping-pong game as each team took the lead at various stages of the game, but ultimately two late goals gave us a 4-3 win, our first win on the road this season. This win pushed us upto fifteenth in the league, with our record now at Pld 12 Won 4 Drawn 3 Lost 5 and 15pts. We now head to Gosport with us still to win on the road, our away record standing at 2 draws & 3 losses.
With the new line-up, our new signing Cheick Lysalla took full advantage bagging his first brace for the club, and the first of hopefully many this season. James Clark, was pushed up front alongside, whilst we used our second-half changes to bring on Liam Ferdinand, Bradley Wilson & George Reid at appropriate times in a push to get back into the game, when trailing 3-2. Depending on Remy Benison’s injury, he could be part of the match-day squad, after missing the last two games.
The midfield Saturday, I thought were superb, as the trio of Josh Green, James Dickson & D’Andre Brown, battled and fought for every ball and tackle throughout the game. Green’s energy is noticeable to many fans, whilst Dickson, the architect for a lot of our set-pieces, claimed his first goal of the season, as his fifty-yard free-kick flew past a crowded Gosport penalty area, and keeper, as the ball found the far corner of the goal. D’Andre Brown, noticeably came more and more into the game, and provided some attempts on the oppositions goal, which has been sadly been missing from this area. Depending on how we set-up, I see no reason to make any changes to the starters from Saturday. Connor Barratt still appears to be the odd man out for the moment. Also Ben Cook who played a right wing-back role Saturday is an option here.
The defence Saturday switched to a five at the back, with centre-backs Billy Upton, a goalscorer once again, Jack Ball & Scott Armsworth. The two wing-backs were Ben Cook on the right, and Joe O’Loughlin on the left. Although this formation seemed to work, when we did lose the ball, it was a simple move and break by Gosport, as they used the open space behind the wing back, and this accounted for two of their goals. Both wing-backs did push forward and neatly combined with the players in front of them. Whether we stick with this formation or move to a back-four is unclear, and will Markus Johnson-Schuster return to a starting role? Again Simon Grant had little chance with the three Gosport goals, and did what he needed when he could.
The first of two match-ups versus Dorchester, against a team that has a number of talented players we have crossed paths before at other clubs. Obviously we want to win both match-ups, but if you had to pick one game to win, would you pick tomorrow night’s league game or Saturday’s FA Trophy game?
With the weather not the best and a late decision to run a coach, it will be interesting to see how many make the trip to get behind the players.
Let’s Go Stoke !
Match Preview by Martin French..
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