DORCHESTER Town boss Callum Brooks is unconcerned by the Magpies’ 1-0 loss to Horndean, focusing instead on match minutes gained.

Brooks’ men went down to a 59th-minute Harry Jackson goal against a side ranked two divisions lower, while both teams conspired to miss a gluttony of chances in a match notable for poor finishing.

Pre-season, by nature, facilitates the ironing out of such shortcomings and Brooks remains calm despite a below-par performance from Dorchester.

He told Echosport: “From my point of view it wasn’t a game where I can come away and say ‘we were at our best’ in any aspect.

“But it’s about getting the right amount of minutes and we’ve done that – we move on to (tomorrow) night’s training.

“There was a lot of rustiness and that’s natural for this stage of pre-season.

“But at the same time some of that rustiness is key detail that needs to be ironed out within the next four weeks.

“We learned some valuable lessons and as ever we’ll work on the training ground to make sure we slowly iron them out.”

Brooks confessed Dorchester might have felt the effects of a loaded Thursday night training session.

“We’ve worked (the players) very, very hard,” he said. “We almost did a double session on Thursday, and it was the first time we had any contact with grass on a hot day.

“I wanted the players to play under a bit of pressure and that’s what they did. The flip side of that was that we lacked a bit of freshness.

“We had quite a mixed group playing as well. It was a good exercise but it certainly wasn’t one I’ll remember for enjoyment reasons.

“At the same time, I chose Horndean for a specific purpose because they’ve got a shape which is difficult to play against and they stick to their principles.

“You’ve also got the hill there as well. They made it difficult for us and they did what they did very well. The test I thought we were getting, we got.

“From my point of view, as long as we use it for progression, it was a good afternoon.”