WIMBORNE Town player-boss Christer Warren has defended his decision to drop master marksman Scott Joyce, claiming he will always put the club ahead of individuals.

The Wessex Premier Division's leading scorer returned to the Magpies starting line-up on Saturday after a surprise, three-match spell on the sidelines.

And the striker, who has racked up a hugely impressive 33 goals in all competitions so far this season, admitted he felt the decision to drop him was "weird".

In quotes attributed to Joyce in an article on pitchside.net, the highly-rated frontman said: "I was dropped because they're saying my confidence was low but it's a bit weird because I scored in six games in a row. And then I didn't score against Alresford and Bideford and I was dropped.

"I don't think my confidence dropped simply because I didn't score in two games."

He added: "I love Wimborne, I think it's a great club to play for.

"The players are great and the supporters are brilliant so I think I've got to work a bit harder and show the management what I can do.

"Obviously what I've done is not enough so I've got to work harder and that's what I'll do.

"I'm quite happy to stay at Wimborne for many years yet because I just love the club."

Warren insisted the decision was not personal but admitted he would have preferred Joyce to speak face-to-face.

"He's the top league goalscorer so he's going to be disappointed but it's not the Scott Joyce show, it's about Wimborne Town and I've got to do what's best for Wimborne Town," the former Cherries star told the Daily Echo.

Previewing tomorrow's key Wessex Premier Division clash at AFC Totton, Warren believes his side "can't afford to lose", but said they would travel to face their title rivals with "no fear".

"It's a massive game," said the cultured midfielder. "We've lost against Poole, Poppies and Tot-ton now and we've got to start taking points off the top teams.

"As much as I've been happy with the performances bar the Poole one, people look at the results and see we've lost.

"They're very, very strong, good up front and can cause a lot of problems. But we've got players that hopefully on their day can cause problems.

"I've got confidence in the lads that we can go there and cause them problems.

"We need to be more clinical. We're just not putting the ball in the net and that's the hardest thing to do. If you don't do that you're not going to win too many games."

Wimborne will be missing Tommy McCormick, who has been ruled out for three to four weeks because of a knee operation.

Wimborne Town: (from) Hutchings, S Langrish, G Langrish. Phillipson-Masters, Jones, Roast, Arnold, Vavrecka, Warren, Blackburn, Joyce, Stokoe, Whitcher, Percival, Moore.