MANAGER Jeff Evans is under no illusions about his number one priority this summer — rebuilding Dawlish Town's depleted strikeforce.

A season that started with so much promise for the Seasiders ended with a 2-1 defeat at Willand Rovers on Monday night.

DAWLISH Town manager Jeff Evans condemned his side's toothless performance following their 1-0 defeat to lowly Melksham Town at Sandy Lane on Saturday.

The Seasiders are now winless in their last four Toolstation Premier games thanks to Daniel Harvey's late winner

THE RELENTLESS barrage of Toolstation Western League fixtures continues to test Dawlish Town's powers of resilience, writes Chris Rogers.

The Seasiders are still playing catch-up with the rest of the Premier Division, and a run of 11 games in the final 36 days of the season begins at Sherborne Town tomorrow (3pm).

Manager Jeff Evans is frustrated the league deadline of April 24 cannot be extended to accommodate his side's backlog of fixtures — caused by their FA Vase run and the bad weather over winter.

"It's getting very hard," said Evans. "After all the fun of trying to get to the last 16 of the Vase, and as high up the league as possible, the players are dead on their feet."

Several are suffering with injury too, the latest being skipper Gary Fisher.

Clyst Rovers midfielder Gardner first played for the Seasiders in the Boxing Day defeat to Willand Rovers.

But with Rovers withdrawing from the Carlsberg South West Peninsula League last week, he is now available for Dawlish on a full-time basis.

Evans says his newest signing can play either wide left or wide right, and he made an instant impact on Tuesday night when he set up the only goal in Dawlish's 1-0 win at Radstock Town.

Gardner tore down the left flank and whipped in a cross that midfielder Kris Davis finished off.

The result means it's now four unbeaten for the Seasiders in the Toolstation Western League and, with games in hand, a top-six finish is still very much a possibility.

"I never thought otherwise," said Evans. "You don't suddenly become a bad side overnight unless there's something badly wrong.

"We went through that period (six successive league defeats) when players were injured or suspended, and it was hard to get a side out. It came to a head at Hallen when we had seven first-team players missing."

Now, though, things are looking much healthier and Evans is delighted to see competition for places.

Gardner joins fellow new arrival Chris Bailey in the squad, while Craig Fenner returns from suspension for tomorrow's trip to Bristol.

The only doubt is youngster Sean Adderley, who was injured following a poor tackle at Longwell Green.

A similar controversial challenge sparked some heated scenes at Radstock in midweek when Davis was fouled.

Much to the Dawlish dugout's dismay, the home player was only yellow-carded while Seasiders central defender Paul Kendall was sent off for his part in the fracas that followed.

"We played with 10 men for most of the second half and still created more chances than them, so I was really pleased with the three points," added Evans.

The manager also confirmed he has released right-back Michael Broom but, with Dean Coppard back and Dougie Ford also in contention, he still has plenty of full-back options.

DAWLISH Town stalwart Craig Fenner might be worried for his starting spot after the Seasiders beat nine-man Longwell Green Sports 3-1 at Sandy Lane on Saturday.

The suspended defender watched his team-mates put on a master-class as the defence hardly looked troubled and only conceded their first in three games from a penalty.

Manager Jeff Evans was delighted with his side's turnaround in form, and they are now undefeated in three games.

Evans said: "We've got everyone back and they've got their heads down concentrating on the task at hand.

"We've had so many players out and sometimes I wondered how we'd fill the bench. After today though, Craig Fenner should be concerned he won't get back in."

Evans also praised his side's control as Longwell had two sent-off for over aggressive tackles.

"It would've been easy for them to lose their heads with the tackles that were flying in," added the manager.

"But they were disciplined and professional throughout which is also why we've had a change in fortunes."

Longwell started the brighter of the two teams, hitting the post early on but Dawlish took the lead in the 12th minute when Radley Veale broke down the right.

He unselfishly pulled the ball back for Kris Davis to slot home his second of the season.

Town keeper Luke Purnell gave the home side a scare when his mis-hit clearance fell to Longwell's Chris Alway, but Alway couldn't finish with an open goal.

Dawlish doubled their lead just before half-time. Gary Fisher went on a winding run down the left wing and played a neat ball to Sean Adderley who was tripped in the box.

Dean Stevens saw the resulting penalty saved but smashed in the rebound to score his 18th of the season.

Longwell pulled one back after the break when the ball spilled out of Purnell's hands and the goalkeeper pulled down Dave Parnell whilst scrambling to recover. Chris Dauncey sent Purnell the wrong way to make it 2-1.

Shortly after Fisher capped off a man-of-the-match performance with the winner.

The Longwell defence attempted a clearance but it crashed off the Dawlish skipper and floated over the stranded Mark Britton to seal the win.

Late on Longwell lost their discipline — Andy Finch received a second booking for a bad foul and Parnell was lucky to stay on after a reckless challenge. Ross Vickerman was red-carded for the visitors for a two-footed challenge which ended Adderley's match.

Evans said: "We're putting a nice run together now and were one mistake in judgement from having three straight clean sheets."

Dawlish travel to Radstock Town tomorrow night.