Poole Town 1 Chippenham 3

Sadly this was the type of Poole performance we have seen before. Plenty of effort but no cutting edge and a competent opposition making the most of defensive errors. Gleeson came in for his first game of the season but Poole without Petts is like a doughnut without jam. Although Chippenham should have scored early on from a diving header, Poole went on to dominate the first half. Gillespie headed wide, Burbs had plenty of runs with the ball on the right and shots rained in on the Chippenham goal (or wide or over). Poole unfortunately weren't sharp enough in front of goal and paid the penalty (literally) when Chippenham broke, caused panic in the Poole area and had a player tripped from behind. The penalty was easily converted.

Just after half time, Holmes who looked Poole's best player had a good shot turned around the post and that was Poole's best effort of the match. Poole lacked ideas and Chippenham grew in confidence and started to dominate the play. A second penalty was awarded when Hutch inexplicably bundled into a Chippenham forward going for a bouncing ball. It looked a penalty from the other end and it also looked unecessary. Again the penalty was converted. Poole tried gamely to get back in the match and excellent passing between Holmes and Gillespie led to Gillespie being tripped in the box and Devlin converting the penaly. Game on, but not, as Chippenham broke at the other end resulting in a pull back by Walker who received a red card after being yellow carded earlier. Chippenham marauded forward towards the end with Poole in dissaray and scored a third goal.

This was disappointing in that we have seen this kind of game from Poole last season where domination is not turned into goals and poor discipline costs points. The question remains whether the team has been strengthened by the new arrivals. Chippenham were no more than a good team who were determined and on their game. They deserved the win but I will eat a beefburger if they win the league.