Poole Town completed a difficult month of October with a gritty performance at Alresford which saw the Dorset side record another three points. Eight games played in the month, five wins, one draw, two defeats but progress in both cup competitions and still top of the league. For a team not playing well or with a huge amount of confidence, it's not a bad record at all!

As would be expected Tom started with the same eleven who played so well at Totton & Eling in midweek but there was good news with Taffy Richardson returning from injury and taking his place on the bench.

This was, for the most part, a very scrappy game with neither side really stringing any cohesive football together for any length of time. Despite claims from the Alresford officials on the gate that they had the best pitch and playing surface in the league (eh?) both sides struggled to get the ball down and play any decent football. Alresford started brightly however and the early ten minutes suggested it could be quite a good game.

On six minutes a Hubbard corner found Luke Whitley at the far post and his acrobatic leap saw his shot come back off the post before being cleared. It wwas the only definitive goal scoring opportunity for either side in the first half hour as the game descended into some aimless passing and a huff and puff around the midfield.

On 29 minutes Alresford played a freekick into the Poole area but an unmarked home player at the far post could only volley wide with the goal beckoning. It was a scare for Poole and they slowly began to up their game for the rest of the half. Preston found some space on the left and saw a shot fizz just wide and with half time approaching a Hubbard freekick found the head of Stu Brown but the striker's glancing header went just wide. With almost the last move of the first half Alresford overlapped down the left hand side and a cross deep to the far post found the head of Daunter and he made no mistake to give the home side a lead at the break.

Half time: 1-0.

Early in the second half saw little improvement in the quality until Taffy Richardson came on for Dave Sturgess on the hour mark. Gill and Cook replaced Trefor Smith and Stu Brown shortly afterwards and a combination of Taffy's tackling in midfield and Gill's efforts down the right brought a bit more joy for the Dolphins. Taffy Richardson had a shot well parried by the home keeper and then a collision left the midifielder on the ground for quite some time. Later diagnosed as bruised ribs (maybe broken?) Taff played on as all of Poole's substitutes had been used.

Typical of the man, it was Richardson himself who, on 75 minutes, popped up at the far post to hook home into the roof of the net to bring the game level. Now back on equal terms it was Poole who went searching for the winning goal. Gill had a left foot shot on 80 minutes which hit the post and went out. The referee bizarrely awarded a corner (one of many puzzling decisions let's say) but nothing came from the unexpected bonus.

Alresford broke down the right on 84 minutes and Jones made a fine save to push the ball away for a corner. The resulting kick saw a hard shot cleared off the line by Gill with Jones beaten and a series of shots rained in on the Poole goal but all were blocked / cleared. Poole broke back and suddenly found themselves two on one, Cook's eventual shot being well saved by the keeper.

On 87 minutes another scramble in the Alresford penalty area saw the ball pop up and for the second match running Steve Smith applied the finish to secure the points for Poole.

Another hard fought game and one that Alresford will probably rightly feel aggrieved that they got nothing from. Still Poole are not firing on anything like full cylinders but it's another three points and at the moment it really doesn't matter how we get them.