Promotion dream fades for Magpies

Dereham Town suffered their heaviest defeat of the season on Saturday, when they were thrashed 4-0 by relegation threatened Ware.

The defeat leaves the Magpies in seventh place with their chances of making it into the play-offs virtually all over, after a dismal day in Hertfordshire.

The Magpies started slowly and didn't threaten until the 16th minute and when they did Danny Beaumont's poor effort sailed over the cross bar.

However just ten minutes later poor defending from the visitors allowed Deniz Mehmet to pick out Albert Donyinah in the penalty area and Donyinah fired his side into the lead.

Dereham struggled to respond on a testing surface, but thought they had pulled level in 43rd minute, only for Luke Tuttle's strike to be ruled out for offside.

Just three minutes in the second half, with the Magpies still in the dressing room, Ilyas Cil finished off Kazim Bishop's corner to double the hosts' advantage.

Just six minutes later and Bishop fired over from just outside the penalty area, adding to the Magpies' woes.

Dereham's only second half chance fell to Aaron Kay 10 minutes before time but his powerful free kick deflected over the crossbar.

With seven minutes to play Ware sealed victory, this time through substitute Kieran Bishop who finished well under pressure.

The one bright spot for the Magpies was the return of Luke Hannant to their midfield.

'Its great to be coming back into the team, but it's just a shame the game didn't go our way,' said Hannant. 'We would have liked to have attacked the game better from the start but heads dropped a bit and in the end we were beaten by the better side. I'm looking forward to playing the next few games and all of us want to get as many points as possible and finish the season well.'