St Neots Town v Poole Town 15 August 2015

This match was eagerly anticipated as the test of the season so far against the fancied front runners for the title. The pitch at Rowley Park was green and lush and the chips copious. It was good to see Petts in the side after rumours of absence and the game started with Poole playing as they left off against Hungerford, passing the ball well as they probed a St Neots defence without their two normal giant centre backs. Gillie looked lively up front but it was St Neots who hit the post early on. It looked a fairly even contest until Emerson, coming into the team for Lindsay, stepped forward, moved to the right and struck an unstoppable shot past the St Neots keeper. It is fair to say that no-one saw it coming.

The second half brought louder shouting from the saints bench and a more direct style of play. Poole coped with that adequately until saints drew level passing the ball quickly across the goal and firing a shot in off the underside of the bar. That didn't really change the balance of the game and Poole carried on playing measured football with Devlin playing particularly well with vision to find Poole players marauding forward. One of the attacks let to Burbidge being through on goal. He rounded the keeper and was brought down only for the ref to give a free kick to St Neots and a yellow to Burbs. The Poole player maybe could have stayed on his feet and did go down a little theatrically but it was a foul by the keeper and a definite penalty. The ref got it wrong. 

There was to be no respite for St Neots as they pressed forward and were left exposed as Roberts picked up a pass near the half way line, outstripped the defenders and coolly slotted the ball past the advancing keeper to make the score 1 - 2. Roberts really is showing the talent he has this season and is quickly becoming a very influential player for Poole. Burbidge was put through for another one on one with the St Neots keeper, again went round him and again was clipped. This time he stayed on his feet and passed the ball into the empty net. St Neots threw everything forward and scored a second. The game was marred for them by a broken leg for goalscorer Remy Gordon. We wish him a speedy recovery. It did mean that there was a significant amount of injury time and St Neots threw everything at Poole looking for the equaliser. They didn't have enough though and the game ended 2 - 3. 

This was more great entertainment for the travelling fans and on this showing Poole look like they could challenge for the title. The games don't get easier though as the dolphins face a Chippenham team with a perfect 3 win record on Tuesday evening.