Russell Cook made his first start in a Dolphins shirt against the team he had just left, which added a little sidebar story to the otherwise seemingly relentless march towards the end of this amazing season. Christchurch have been banging in goals for fun of late and Poole would have to be wary of Kempy’s much improved side.

Poole started well applying some early pressure but the Hurn side replied in kind and the makings of a real good night of football were in the offing. Our referee though had other ideas and over use of his whistle and some nitpicking with free kicks and throw-ins, while all perfectly correct by the rules, went a long way to disrupting play and the flow of an otherwise frantic game.

On 7 minutes, Poole pressure had won a corner. Lamin’s header fell to Gill at point blank range but Stewart Kearns managed to throw his body in the way to block the shot for another corner. On 10 minutes with Christchurch now pressing , Harvell had to stretch to push a shot around the post and then watched another shot fly over the bar a minute later.

On 17 mInutes, Taffy made a horrendous error in the last third and gave the ball away with a sloppy pass to Lamin with the Hurn attackers hovering. Mark Smith nabbed the loose ball and a quick pass dissected the Poole defence for Gareth Barnes to charge in and drive the ball home past Havell and put the home side 1-0 up. Christchurch’s euphoria was short lived and Taffy quickly made amends as Poole scored straight from the restart to level up the scores once more . Charlie Austin’s run on the right made space for a shot which Taffy tapped in as Kearns dived to save from Austin. Level again at 1-1.

Poole almost made it 2-1 a couple of minutes later, Culliford’s shot handed away by the capable Kearns, and again Taffy was on hand to gather the rebound for a shot at a near empty net with Kearns still on the floor but the ref was straight on the whistle as Taffy was adjudged to have handled the ball to gain control. On 23 minutes Austin stuck out a leg to bring Lamin’s pacey forward ball under control and in one motion, also turned his man near the halfway line and was off goalward with just the wrong footed Adam Costello in hot pursuit. The hurn defender nailed Charlie from behind in the box with a reckless challenge that was to go totally unnoticed.
Both Luke and Lamin got a caution within a minute with the clock on 25, which coincided with another Christchurch surge. On 31 minutes, Harvell saved a point blank shot from Barnes and Lamin hooked the rebound away, which was the home sides best chance in a series that rained down on Jason’s goal.

Poole won a free kick on 33 minutes just beyond the half-way line and managed to relieve the building pressure. It floated into the Hurn penalty area, and several Poole strikers had a pop at it but Kearns blocked and parried until it dropped to Austin who smashed it gleefully home from 2 yards to give Poole a 2-1 lead out of the blue.
That seemed to prick Christchurch’s bubble and the remainder of the period was back to evens-stevens again. On 40 minutes, Gill fired a cross from one wing to the other straight through the box and Culliford shot from the other quarter was caught by Kearns as Austin moved in looking for any scraps, only to get a smack on the shin that felled him for his trouble from his marker that again went unnoticed. Gill picked up Poole’s third caution just before the break to further annoy the Poole bench who seemed to feel they weren’t getting a fair rub of the green from the man in the middle. Half time Poole lead 2-1.

There is an old adage that says you should let your actions do your talking for you and if the Dolphins felt aggrieved at the ref’s first half performance, they came out for the second half determined to put the game to bed in short order. Christchurch were now much more on the defensive and with a week’s break beckoning after this game, Poole’s tired legs where forgotten for a crashing, pulverising 45 minutes to work off any frustrations. Their first attack brought the reward and from the most unlikely source. As Poole attacked in strength, Culliford picked up a cross just outside the area and laid it back to Carl Poore to float in. Poore gave it a real whack and the curling cork-screwing ball looked to be going past the far post as Kearns dived to save. But at the last instant it curled back inboard and flew inside the post at ground level to put Poole 3-1 ahead. Tommy had promised Poore £50 if he scored a single goal this season and it so it was proving to be an expensive week for Mr Killick, having just shelled out £250 to Charlie having lost his bet with our goal ace that he wouldn’t hit 40 goals in the season.

Having gained a two goal cushion Poole relentlessly went after more, and Austin drove wide of the post a few minutes later. Kempy had seen enough and made a double change up front with Fairbrother and Osborne giving way to the highly rated Tom Price for his debut and James Burden with the obvious intention of using fresh legs to try to pin back the Poole defensive line. But it had little effect as the Hurn men couldn’t find much of a way through to their new boys.
On 60 minutes, Cook got an elbow from his old pals, on the edge of the Hurn area. It was far too close for Hubbard’s range but he took it anyway and blasted the ball into the car park. A minute later Taffy fed Hubbard in front of goal and having spun to make space his shot was only just wide this time. Charlie Austin got clobbered again without redress on 68 minutes and needed attention but was this time was unable to run it off this time and he hobbled from the pitch to be replaced by Steve Smith on 70 minutes. Leigh Philips made a rare showing coming on for Cook on 75 minutes and just two minutes later got his head on Gill’s cross to bring another fine save from Kearns who just got his fingertips on the ball. Smith dived onto the rebound and his shot from just 1 yard was blocked by the prone body of a Christchurch defender. Christchuch made their last substitution to try to relieve the pressure, Barnes departing for a more defensive minded Mark Walker with 10 minutes to go.

The pocket-rocket combined with Smith and got through the Christchurch defence for another golden opportunity to score but as in a couple of recent matches, he blazed the ball wide from a very advantageous position; time for a whip round and get him some new boots? But while his shooting may be a bit off the mark of late, Gilly’s tenacious running shows no sign of abating and on 87 minutes he chased and harried to win a throw in near the corner flag. The long throw was headed on into the 6-yard box by Andy Culliford and Philips, Steve Smith and Poore all had shots at goal from close range that were desperately blocked and parried by the Hurn men before they finally got the ball out of play.. Final score 3-1

With all the remaining fixtures now finally settled with dates, Poole have a very hectic run in with four games alone in the last week of the season. Thankfully most are going to be at home at the Tatnam, but with no game scheduled for the coming Saturday, our lads will have a whole week’s rest to catch their breaths for that final push for silverware and medals.