Try to set a deadzone for the stick, it might just be tilted to the right a tiny bit which causes the game to detect that you are holding it to the right.

With CTRL+F1 you can also enter the keymapper to configure the controller for DOSBox.

thanks for that info - there are deadzon settings in the dosbox-x config GUI - however there is no explanation as what values i should enter, i also have never really been clear on what a deadzone means for joysticks. the help button for the teh GUI is very unhelpful in that it doesnt explain any of these settings in dosbox-x in any way that is helpful either

okay so i was tying again with dosbox-x as just using the normal dosbox mapper to map keyboard controls to the joystick did not work.

I am again able to get it set so there is no drifting, however when i achieve this, the joystick controls only seem to move in diagonal directions, i cant get it to recognise the standard left right up down. frustrating, as it might be simply because i have to do the calibration in a certain way

A bit late but for anyone else with a similar problem, in the regular DOSBox config:

[joystick]
timed=false

Change "timed=true" to "timed=false" can also help with preventing the drifting.

Thanks I will try that again in the normal dosbox. I did try that setting in dosbox-x but will t made no difference.

I have however found a solution in the meantime - using the program "joytokey" I was able to map the keys to my gamepad perfectly (it may be the case that I might though even beagle to just map the keyboard controls to the gamepad through the dosbox mapper alone - I tried to do this before but hand gotten the keys mixed up then, that being said I like with joytokey that I can make custom profiles, I am not sure one can make custom mapper files for dosbox, can one?)