IT’S back to the training ground for Wimborne Town – as James Stokoe is set to put his charges through their paces in a bid to cut out soft goals at set-pieces.

Magpies have conceded five goals from corners and free-kicks in the span of just four days – including a heart-breaking last-minute winner against Truro.

Will Spetch found it easy to nod home two free-kicks in Wimborne’s Cross-Stour derby loss to Poole on Saturday, before Magpies again were caught lacking at the back when Truro visited New Cuthbury on Tuesday night, with the Cornish side plundering three simple goals from set plays.

The inability to defend crosses into the box was the only downside of a strong Wimborne performance, with Magpies grabbing three finely worked goals to prove their quality in an eventual 4-3 loss.

However, Stokoe is wary that his side cannot keep losing points due to cheap goals – causing him to take drastic measures on the training pitch.

Speaking after the Truro game, Stokoe told the Daily Echo: “It’s clearly something that we need to get out on training ground on.

“I said in the changing room that we are going to bore the tears out of them in the next two or three weeks just doing set pieces because if you look back over the course of season, it's not just (against Truro.)

“Swindon at home, we dropped points by conceding goals from wide areas, Chesham at home, we've lost a game from set pieces.

“Poole Town, Truro, you can go through and analyse, probably mostly, there's not many games where we've been carved open and teams have outplayed us, things like that.

“It’s set pieces and wide areas. It’s something we've really, really got to knuckle down and work hard at, because we can't keep losing games because we can't defend a corner or free kick. It's not acceptable at this level.”

When asked if the stronger aspects of his side’s performance were at least a positive they could take from the game, Stokoe responded: “I think that definitely, you can see confidence has grown over the last couple of weeks.

“Let's say we go back a few weeks, you've got the Met Police game away, second in the league, great result, to get a draw.

“Gosport at home, fourth in the league, we won the game. Salisbury, we would have fancied our chances going into that.

“You take the Poole game out where the Dan Strugnell injury, it really affected the mentality of my players.

“So, if you take that one out, and then put today's performance in, the performances have been really, really good. Really, really pleasing.

“But on this occasion, a really good performance has not yielded us any points.

“It’s pleasing that the performance was good, and the lads look like they've got some confidence. But at the end of the day, it's not benefited us in our league position.”

Magpies remain rooted to the foot of the Southern League Premier South, ahead another home game on Saturday. Play-off chasing Yate Town will be the visitors to the New Cuthbury (kick-off 3pm.)