We must start picking up points - Donnelly

Gareth Chendlik’s second-half double, as well as efforts from Lewis Taylor and Anthony Oaks, ensured division-higher Bostik League Premier Division Dorking Wanderers ran out 4-0 victors in an Velocity Trophy second-round clash at Middle Road.

Donnelly experimented in the cup encounter, going with a 3-5-2 system and gave minutes to a few of his fringe players.

Focus now turns back to the Bostik League South and Shoreham’s quest to get out of trouble.

Basement boys Mussels, who are seven points adrift of Ashford United and safety after a six-point deduction last week, have three league matches in a hectic eight-day period.

A trip to VCD Athletic on Saturday is followed by a game at South Park three days later, with Shoreham then returning home to take on fourth-from-bottom Molesey to round off a busy week.

And it’s a run of games Donnelly hopes sees a first league victory since October come from.

He said: “Every game is difficult in this division but we must start picking up points at some stage.

“I’ve actually felt we’ve played quite well in recent matches and I certainly don’t think we are the worst team in this league.

“The main thing we need is a little bit of fortune to go for us. Luck is what we’ve been missing in recent times, hopefully that turns around and we start picking up points.

“Once we start to accumulate points, we’ll start becoming more confident and hopefully we’ll start moving up the table.”

Donnelly shook things up as Mussels went down against Dorking on Tuesday.

Taylor broke the deadlock with his strike after eight minutes before Oaks added a second 18 minutes later.

Chendlik all but ended any hopes Mussels had off pulling off a cup shock on the hour.

The same man rounded off the scoring ten minutes later as Dorking romped to a routine cup win.

Mussels boss Donnelly was satisfied with his side’s efforts and the opportunity to give some minutes to some of the younger members in the squad.

He added: “We tried a couple of new things but we didn’t seem to adapt that well.

“Focus returns to the league now, though, this did give me a chance to have a look at some different things.

“The main focus this season is making sure we remain in this division, so we need to start picking up points in the league now.

“Hopefully we’ll start doing that in a busy week of games we have coming up.”

SHOREHAM: Broadbent; Packer, O’Niel, Gathern; Roddy, Whitemore, Myers, Carey, Whitehead; Herbert, Stevens. Subs: Collyer (Roddy), Bullivant (Stevens), Proto-Gates (Gathern).