BASINGSTOKE Town boss Jason Bristow is hoping that Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Havant and Waterlooville is just a blip after some good performances in recent weeks.

The league games are coming thick and fast now for Town and they are in action again tomorrow night (kick-off 7.45pm) when they travel to Dorchester.

Bristow said: “I think the scoreline flattered Havant as we gifted them the first three goals. We got ourselves back into the game at 2-1 only to gift them a third.

“I thought we were over that as we have been playing well at the moment so I hope this is just a blip.

“We did well in the second-half and they only scored because we were pushing forward, but we can’t afford to try and fight our way back into games.”

The derby defeat at Havant on Saturday saw the Dragons slip back into the Blue Square Bet South relegation zone and their opponents tomorrow night are just above them with one more point.

In fact it is so tight in the league that, had Basingstoke won on Saturday, they would have moved up to 12th in the table, but instead Havant did that.

Striker Tim Sills, who has a broken thumb, looks set to miss out again at Dorchester as he did at the weekend, while Bristow admits he might change the side in Dorset, but has yet to make a decision on that, but has no fresh injury worries ahead of the game.

On Saturday, Dorchester came out on the wrong end of a five-goal thriller at Welling and, in the past two months, have only one win to their name, but the Town boss is expecting a tough game.

Bristow said: “I think that now all the pitches are going to be heavy and we have to dig in and get results. It might not be pretty at times, but we have to turn in gritty performances.

“We lost to Dorchester 1-0 in the FA Cup so we know a little bit of what they are about.

“We will take the positives out of the second-half performance at Havant and hope to get a result there.”

See The Monday Gazette for a full report from Town’s loss at Havant.