Poole forgot to turn up and play for the first five minutes on Tuesday night and conceded two goals to a struggling Brockenhurst team that meant a fight back for the remainder of the game. The Champions won by a 4-2 scoreline with ease in the end but it should have reminded the confident Dolphins squad that it’s a game of 90 minutes not less. Today’s game ended with the same result but after the Dolphins had outplayed and totally bossed the entire game, even having their hosts looking utterly demoralised by the middle of the second half with a 4-nil over them, they inexplicably quit five minutes from the end and allowed New Milton to get two goals back in the sloppiest of fashion.
Poole took around 10 minutes to get into their stride, with little in the way of goalmouth action to record. Steadily though the play was edging closer to the home goal and on 18 minutes a huge goal kick from Jones was headed on by Taffy Richardson into the path of Steve Smith deep in the Milton penalty area. His path blocked, Smith back-heeled to his strike partner Cook who barged his way past his marker to fire under Sam Webb’s body to open the scoring.
From then on it was another display of pacy football from the reigning Champions as they tore into a equally determined New Milton defence. On 21 minutes, Mick Hubbard floated in a cross from wide on the Dolphin right but the unmarked Carl Preston sliced the volley at the far post wide. As the half-hour approached a neat one-two between Peter Smith and Preston, that covered the entire left side of the pitch, resulted in Preston’s cross finding Steve Smith at the far post. The goalhunter turned, created space and fired beating Webb’s leap but the ball glanced off the crossbar and found Cook, but the ball arrived so swiftly that he only managed to turn it wide of the far post.
The referee, Paul Knight had a superb game. The ‘Rocker in black’ caught almost all infringements and played advantage where possible, however persistent fouling brought Simon Quirk the first caution on 38 minutes. Poole extended their lead to 2-0 on 40 minutes, Carl Preston shooting home from close range, again in that unmarked position at the far post from a cross.
Half-time 2-0.
Poole bossed he second half from the outset and had New Milton pinned in their own half for much of the period. The frustration of some of the Linnets was beginning to show and Mark Lilley had the enviable task of trying to mark Pete Smith who again was in blistering form. Having hauled him down unceremoniously on 55 minutes to earn his first caution, Lilley did the same thing again just 3 minutes later and Paul Knight awarded him a second caution and an early shower for his trouble. New Milton looked dead and buried, down to ten men, demoralised and with seemingly no answer to even get the ball out of their own half.
Cook fired over the bar on 53 minutes and Steve Smith’s challenge for a high floated corner with Sam Webb saw them both hit the dirt, but Smith still got a foot on the ball only to poke it into the side netting. Poole pushed tighter up field and this to a degree stifled their style, the ever decreasing space to play their ‘game’ thus limiting their shots on goal to these two efforts for quite a period.
Poole started their substitution’s around the two-thirds stage, with the still unfit Kevin Gill replacing Preston on the right and Aaron Skelton for Hubbard in the centre and the pace dropped off a little. It was Skelton though who had the next two chances drilling a low ball from Luke Whitley’s cross that Webb did well to drop on and save from the edge of the area on 72 minutes and three minutes later, turned Pete Smith’s cross wide of the far post.
New Milton fought bravely on but were bound to break under this pressure and had no complaints when Trefor Smith was shoved over in the box and Paul Knight pointed to the spot. Steve Smith gleefully sent Webb the wrong way from the penalty and Poole lead 3-0 with the game looking safe.
Pete Smith left the field to be replaced by veteran Simon Browne on the left and he being a natural defender, Poole the play switched the attacking emphasis to the right wing with Whitley and Gill now being joined increasingly by Ross Lloyd. On 78 minutes, they buried the game and got the fourth goal. Kevin Gill‘s cross from deep on the right was missed by Steve Smith’s head in front of goal, but Russell Cook picked it up beyond the far post turned inside then miss hit the shot on the turn. However, Webb was unsighted and dived too late to stop the ball rolling over the line.
Poole kept coming, but New Milton changed George Gunn for Suhael Odeh and posted him to exploit the huge vacuum that was forming on the right side of the Poole back line. Poole were getting overconfident and got caught playing about across the back on 86 minutes. Gunn chased the path of the ball and then intercepted a lazy pass and headed goalward. Whitley raced back and blocked his first shot as Jones advanced then failed to dive on the loose ball. Gunn crossed into the six yard box and Warren Kenna smashed into a keeperless net to get a goal back for the Linnets. It ought to have served as a warning to the visitors but it didn’t and now New Milton suddenly had their tails up and Poole looked panic stricken at the back. On the right, Lloyd and Whitley were again caught way too far up field and this time Gunn did the job himself, a through ball found him one on one with Jones with the red & white shirts racing back in vain. He slotted his shot inside the near post for the home side’s second in two minutes. Tom Killick erupted on the bench at his wayward back line, but the fight back began too late and the game ended 4-2 with Poole’s 100 percent record intact, if not their pride.
